SEOUL, July 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major banks are ramping up corporate lending and support for small businesses in response to President Lee Jae-myung’s recent rebuke of the financial sector for relying too heavily on mortgage lending to drive profits. During a policy meeting on July 24, President Lee criticized banks for [...]
SEOUL, July 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s battery sector surged to the top of domestic stock performance rankings in July, buoyed by rising lithium prices and new U.S. trade actions against China. Yet individual investors are increasingly betting on a market correction, diverging sharply from the bullish stance of foreign institutions. According to data [...]
SEOUL, July 28 (Korea Bizwire) — A majority of foreign-invested companies in South Korea view the country’s labor relations as confrontational and its labor market regulations as excessively rigid, according to a new survey released Sunday by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), an arm of the Federation of Korean Industries. The poll, conducted by [...]
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s latest round of stimulus coupons, intended to boost domestic consumption, is drawing scrutiny as some recipients are reportedly using them to purchase large quantities of tobacco products—prompting renewed calls to restrict eligible items. According to reports gathered by Yonhap News Agency on Friday, a significant number of [...]
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — As discussions intensify around the adoption of Korean won-based stablecoins, credit card companies in South Korea are scrambling to respond, concerned about potential disruption to their traditional role in the payments ecosystem. According to financial industry sources on Thursday, the Credit Finance Association and eight major credit card companies [...]
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s credit card loan delinquency rate at general banks surged to a 20-year high in May, reflecting growing financial distress among vulnerable borrowers amid tightening credit conditions across the banking sector. According to data released Wednesday by the Bank of Korea, the delinquency rate on credit card loans [...]
SEOUL, July 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s central bank said Thursday it will sell up to 8 trillion won (US$5.83 billion) worth of monetary stabilization bonds (MSBs) next month. The planned issuance represents an 800 billion-won increase from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). As policy tools devised to absorb [...]
SEOUL, July 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) market reached a major milestone this week, with the total number of listed ETFs surpassing 1,000 for the first time, signaling accelerating growth in the sector. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Monday, a total of 1,002 ETFs were being traded on the [...]
SEOUL, July 21 (Korea Bizwire) — As South Korea prepares to roll out its nationwide consumer coupon initiative aimed at reviving domestic spending, some foreign residents, including permanent residents and marriage immigrants, are set to benefit from the program for the first time. Beginning July 21, eligible residents can apply for the consumer coupons, which offer [...]
BUSAN, July 21 (Korea Bizwire) — As housing market polarization between metropolitan and regional areas intensifies, Busan is witnessing a stark internal divide in apartment prices, with the gap between its highest- and lowest-priced units reaching a record high over the past decade. According to data from KB Real Estate analyzed by real estate platform Budongsan [...]