SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean retail investors’ bond purchases have surged this year as they seek safe-haven assets amid rising interest rates and a bearish stock market, data showed Wednesday. Local individual investors had bought a net 10.2 trillion won (US$7.6 billion) worth of bonds over the counter this year as of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Tuesday that the recent disclosure of local banks’ lending-deposit interest rate differences will enhance transparency in their operation and provide customers with better choices in selecting products. Starting Sunday, the Korea Federation of Banks started to allow visitors on its website to know and [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Insurance agencies and planners have voiced strong opposition to big tech companies’ entry into the insurance sales business, criticizing it as an infringement of their commercial rights. The Insurance Agency Association and the Labor Union Solidarity for Insurance Planners held a joint press conference in front of the presidential [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean banks saw their net profit decline 9.9 percent on-year in the first half as their non-interest income shrank, data showed Thursday. Their combined net income came to 9.9 trillion won (US$7.5 billion) in the January-June period, compared with a profit of 11 trillion won tallied a year [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – After many years of failure in attracting market attention, independent equity research firms are finally starting to appeal to investors by releasing a diverse range of market and stock reports. In the midst of the rise of retail investors, which brought about many changes in the research industry, independent stock [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean online lender K-Bank said Tuesday it posted the strongest performance for any first half on increased interest revenue. K-Bank’s first-half net income stood at 45.7 billion won (US$34.9 million), far beyond the 22.5 billion won annual net profit of last year and marking the highest first-half earnings [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean retail investors have sold shares in electric vehicle leader Tesla Inc., while making large purchases of shares in the China-based Tianqi Lithium Corp. over the past month, data showed Monday. Local individual investors net sold US$319.9 million worth of Tesla shares during the period from July 12 [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — A local bank’s refusal to open an account for a foreigner with a long name is discriminatory, South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Monday. The move came 13 months after a foreigner filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea for being rejected by the bank [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreigner ownership of South Korean stocks hit a 13-year low this month, the bourse operator said Sunday, as demand for riskier assets declined amid the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes. Foreign investors held 606.2 trillion won (US$464 billion) worth of stocks traded on the main KOSPI market as of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — The torrential rain that drenched the greater Seoul area resulted in thousands of cars being submerged, putting general insurance companies on alert. A record-breaking downpour that swept through Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon last Monday resulted in 12 general insurance companies receiving 9,189 reports of submerged cars as of [...]