SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Yesterday marked the official launch of South Korea’s very first online-only bank, K Bank, and more than 20,000 new customers have already signed up to open new accounts. On the day the bank launched its service, nearly 15,320 internet-only bank accounts were opened by three in the afternoon, surpassing [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s tallest skyscraper built by retail giant Lotte Group officially opened to the public on Monday, the group’s operating unit said, marking another milestone for the country’s fifth-largest business empire facing a slew of challenges. The opening ceremony of the 123-story Lotte World Tower was attended by top [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — A consortium of South Korean construction companies will start building an eco-friendly residential city in Kuwait in 2019, the infrastructure ministry said Monday. The builders’ consortium led by POSCO A&C and Hyundai Architects and Engineers Associates Co. plans to build the “smart city” which is environmentally friendly, well-organized and [...]
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) – The Korea Institute of Finance suggested Sunday that drastically reducing household debt could shrink consumption, raising a dilemma for those crafting South Korean economic policy to combat the struggle to cope with soaring debt and waning domestic consumption. According to researcher Park Choon-sung in his report on household debt [...]
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Internet-only banks will promote innovation in South Korea’s financial sector that has been struggling with slower growth and slim margins, the financial regulator head said Monday. Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), made the remarks as one of two Internet banks, K-Bank, launched its operations earlier [...]
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) — U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order directing a comprehensive review of major sources of trade deficits, officials said, as they named South Korea one of the 16 countries the U.S. runs large deficits with. The executive order calls for the Department of Commerce and the U.S. [...]
JEJU, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) – The Jeju provincial government said Friday it sent trade delegations to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia last week to sign deals for exports of local products worth several million U.S. dollars. Scores of companies based in the southern resort island of Jeju joined the delegations that visited the Asian [...]
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Affiliates of construction and power equipment conglomerate Doosan Group are expected to further improve their bottom lines this year, aided by increased sales and cost-cutting measures, an executive said Friday. “This year, key Doosan affiliates are forecast to post improved earnings this year, and we will strive to meet [...]
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) – The Export-Import Bank of Korea, one of South Korea’s state-run policy banks, suffered a net loss of 1.46 trillion won (US$1.3 billion) last year, hit by higher provisions against its loans extended to the country’s ailing shipbuilding industry. It was the first time that the bank reported an annual [...]
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The Internet bank of Kakao Corp., South Korea’s dominant chat app, is expected to win a final regulatory approval early next month, an industry source said Thursday, clearing the final hurdle for Kakao to launch the nation’s second Internet bank. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) will hold a meeting [...]