SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) – K-Bank, South Korea’s first Internet-only bank, has achieved more than half of its full-year target of attracting deposits just 24 days after launching operations, the nation’s financial regulator said Thursday. The pace of growth in K-Bank’s deposits is much faster than expected and the Internet-only bank is fueling increased [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of U.S. import restrictions so far this year has already surpassed half of last year’s total, a local trade body said Monday, including one against South Korean products. According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), the U.S. has launched an investigation into 24 separate cases on suspicions of anti-dumping and countervailing duties in the January-April period. This [...]
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Tensions with North Korea haven’t had any significant impact on South Korea’s trade and investment, and a sharp rise in U.S. interest rates is a major risk for Asia’s fourth largest economy going forward, an International Monetary Fund official said Friday. “So far, we have not seen any significant impact on South Korea’s trade investments,” Markus Rodlauer, deputy director of the Asia-Pacific department at the IMF, said [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Cash payments fell to less than half of all payments at a major convenience store chain in 2016 as a growing number of people used credit, debit and other cards, the chain said Sunday. It is the first time that card payments have exceeded 50 percent of the total at any convenience store chain, CU said. Card payments at CU outlets rose to [...]
BUSAN, April 21 (Korea Bizwire) – Global shipping companies have reduced their calls at South Korean ports despite adding more worldwide services, partly a result of Hanjin Shipping going bankrupt, a research organization said Friday. Four different shipping alliances have been realigned into three major players — 2M, The Alliance and Ocean Alliance — in [...]
SEOUL, April 21 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s credit card companies are seeking to apply the iris scanner adopted by Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S8 smartphones on mobile transactions, industry sources said Friday, lauding the feature’s security compared with fingerprints and passwords. According to the sources, Samsung Card Co. is seeking to apply the iris [...]
SEJONG, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday that it has imposed a combined 70.2 billion-won (US$61.4 million) fine on four local builders for rigging bids for a state railway project. The four companies — Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea plans to launch a pilot project for a coinless society this week, South Korea’s central bank said Wednesday, a move that could enhance convenience for ordinary people. Under the project set to begin Thursday, consumers can deposit small change left from purchases of goods into their prepaid [...]
SEJONG, Apr. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday raised its forecast for South Korea’s economic growth this year to 2.7 percent thanks to clear signs of a turnaround in the global economy. The latest forecast is up 0.1 percentage point from the 2.6 percent growth the agency estimated in its [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Samsung Construction & Trading Corporation announced Monday that it is introducing fine dust filtering systems and air quality control devices at its upcoming Raemian apartments in Sinbanpo and Seokgwan-dong, Seoul. The IoT Home Cube, a portable device developed by Samsung C&T’s residential engineering division, measures the fine dust concentration [...]