SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) – The issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) in South Korea tumbled nearly 27 percent in 2016 from a year earlier as the local property market remained sluggish, data showed Tuesday. The amount of ABS issues totaled 60.7 trillion won (US$52.6 billion) last year, down 26.8 percent from the previous year, [...]
GEYONGGI, SOUTH KOREA, March 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The Gyeonggi provincial government has announced a plan to adapt blockchain technology for transparency where charitable donations are concerned. Blockchain is a groundbreaking technology that allows users to keep a record of all their transactions transparently, in linear and chronological order. “Working closely with charities and experts, we’ll develop [...]
SEOUL, March 6 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s credit card companies suffered a drop in their net profit last year on a sharp increase in marketing cost and loan loss expenses, data showed Monday. Eight standalone credit card firms here posted a total of 1.81 trillion won (US$1.5 billion) in net profit, down 9.9 percent [...]
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea should reduce its reliance on the U.S. economy and push to galvanize domestic demand as the world’s No. 1 economy is expected to continue its slow growth down the road, a state think tank said Friday. In a report on the future of the U.S. economy, the [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top-three life insurers – Samsung, Hanwha and Kyobo – have decided to pay all overdue suicide claims, giving in to regulators’ punitive steps, industry officials said Thursday. Samsung will pay a total of 174 billion won (US$152 million) in respect of its policyholders who committed suicide on [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – Returns from investments in studio apartments in South Korea edged down in February from a month earlier due to oversupply, data showed Thursday. The annual returns from investments in studio apartments, better known as “officetels” in South Korea, stood at 5.09 percent in February, down from 5.11 percent in [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Among this month’s three “new architectural technologies” chosen by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was a restroom design that can function as a shelter in case of fire. In the new design, a water barrier is created at the restroom’s entrance by sprinklers during an emergency, preventing [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Lee Kun-hee, the ailing chief of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group, again topped the ranking of dividend income earners, data showed Monday. Dividend payouts to Lee, chairman of the group’s flagship Samsung Electronics Co., stood at 189.9 billion won (US$167.6 million) so far this year, according to the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s financial regulator on Thursday ordered three insurance firms to halt some of their operations as a punitive measure over their overdue suicide insurance benefits. The three insurers — Samsung Life Insurance, Hanwha Life Insurance and Kyobo Life Insurance — have been criticized for failing to pay out [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Trickle-down effects from major South Korean businesses, creating a flow of benefits to smaller companies, are becoming less perceptible. In a report announced Wednesday by the Korea Small Business Institute, researchers said that “there’s now very little trickle-down effects between big companies and SMEs,” based on a statistical analysis [...]