SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will remove cryptocurrency trading and brokerage from its list of industries barred from receiving venture business status, signaling a shift in how the government views the digital asset sector. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Tuesday that the Cabinet approved revisions to the Enforcement Decree of the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s central bank, in coordination with the government and the country’s largest lenders, is preparing to test the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) for distributing public subsidies, a move officials say could curb misuse and improve accountability. According to financial industry sources, the six major banks [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Exchange said Friday it will introduce three new stock indexes tied to artificial intelligence on Sept. 8, underscoring how rapidly the technology is reshaping investment strategies across industries. The indexes — the KRX Sovereign AI Index, the KRX-Akros AI Power Infrastructure Index, and the KRX AI Semiconductor Index [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Illegal private lending and debt collection crimes in South Korea have more than doubled in the past three years, with authorities warning that exploitative lenders are increasingly preying on financially vulnerable groups such as young job seekers. According to data released Thursday by Rep. Han Byung-do, violations of lending [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — With South Korea’s stock market stuck in a holding pattern, investors are pouring money into bond-focused exchange-traded funds, underscoring a shift toward safer assets amid global economic uncertainty. According to Koscom data released Thursday, Samsung Asset Management’s KODEX Money Market Active and Korea Investment Trust’s ACE Money Market Active [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Worker productivity at South Korea’s five largest commercial banks jumped nearly 27 percent in the first half of 2025, topping 200 million won ($147,000) per employee for the first time, according to regulatory filings. The gains narrowed a long-standing gap with internet-only banks, whose per-capita profit, while still higher [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Uncertainty surrounding the United States’ trade policy alone is estimated to reduce South Korea’s economic growth rate by about 0.13 percentage point this year, the central bank said Monday. In late July, Seoul and Washington reached a crucial agreement in which the U.S. imposes a 15 percent tariff on [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — More than eight out of 10 bond traders expect the central bank to keep its policy rate steady this week amid housing market instability and increased volatility in the foreign exchange market, a survey showed Tuesday. According to the survey conducted by the Korea Financial Investment Association last week, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A new breed of company, built on hoarding cryptocurrencies as core assets, is reshaping stock markets from the United States to Japan — and now South Korea. But the meteoric rise of these so-called Crypto Treasury Companies (CTCs) has triggered debate over whether they represent innovative investment vehicles or dangerous [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major securities firms are intensifying efforts to break into the short-term note business, highlighting their commitment to venture capital investment amid tightening regulatory scrutiny. Currently a 40 trillion-won ($30 billion) market, the short-term note sector is regarded as a critical funding channel for large investment banks. Only [...]