SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Hana Financial Group said Tuesday it has signed a preliminary agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Export-Import Bank (EXIM) to expand financial cooperation and support South Korean companies participating in Saudi Arabia’s national project. Hana signed a memorandum of understanding with the EXIM bank at the headquarters of Saudi Arabia’s National [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday maintained South Korea’s growth outlook and inflation forecast for 2023 at 1.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively. The latest figure is just above a 1.4-percent growth projection suggested by the South Korean government in July. The Paris-based organization had [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES) said Tuesday it has raised US$1 billion by selling global green bonds, a funding that will help the battery maker move forward with its aggressive market expansion. LGES sold $400 million worth of three-year debts in one tranche and $600 million worth of bonds [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul city government will hold a global financial technology (fintech) conference next month, bringing together fintech experts from around the world to discuss the digitalization trend in the financial industry, officials said Monday. The 2023 Seoul Fintech Week will kick off on Oct. 4 for a three-day run [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s financial regulator on Thursday asked foreign securities firms to beef up efforts to prevent illegal stock short selling amid an increase in such cases. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) made the request in a meeting with compliance officers of 23 foreign securities companies here, calling for an [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks’ second-quarter net profit was flat from the previous quarter as an increase in the Korea Development Bank’s (KDB) net profit offset a decline in ordinary banks’ net profit, preliminary data showed Tuesday. The combined net profit of 20 banks in the April-June period was 7.1 trillion [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean companies are choosing to reduce the issuance of corporate bonds and are instead turning to bank loans to secure funds during an unexpectedly prolonged period of high interest rates, data showed Monday. Net repayments in the corporate bond market have shown a consistent upward trend, with the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major banks have recently reported multi-year record profits. Ironically, they are now implementing voluntary retirement programs, even for employees in their 30s. At Shinhan Bank, labor and management recently reached an agreement on voluntary retirement conditions. They have decided to accept applications for several days, starting this [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, reported Monday that its second-quarter net income dropped 31 percent from a year earlier on increased loan-loss reserves. Net income stood at 14.7 billion won (US$11 million) in the April-June period, compared with a net profit of 21.3 billion won a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banking sector has become entangled in a series of massive corruption scandals, revealing serious weaknesses in its internal control systems. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Wednesday launched an emergency investigation after receiving allegations that employees of DGB Daegu Bank, located in the southeastern city of Daegu, [...]