SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Pay Corp., the online payment unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., said Tuesday it swung to the black last year thanks to increased financial income. Kakao Pay logged a net profit of 27.5 billion won (US$22 million) on a consolidated basis in 2022, turning from a [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Tuesday it plans to abolish the existing mandatory registration policy for foreigners investing in local stocks within this year, in line with efforts to meet global standards. The move came as foreigners are currently required to file personal information with local financial authorities before [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – The city government of Seoul on Thursday lifted a citywide 35-story limit on apartment buildings to allow more flexible city planning and more colorful landscapes, officials said. The city will abolish the blanket cap that had been applied to Grade-3 residential buildings across Seoul and permit the maintenance of [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will lift property-related regulations in most of Seoul and metropolitan areas as the country’s housing market is at the risk of a deep freeze due to strict regulations and higher lending rates, the land ministry said Tuesday. The government will remove Seoul and its adjacent metropolitan areas [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — An increasing number of people are struggling to pay back loans with as interest rates continue to rise, a central bank report said Monday. The Bank of Korea (BOK) reported that the average debt service ratio (DSR) of mortgage borrowers in the third quarter of this year reached 60.6 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 60 percent of South Koreans aged between 40 and 64 held debt in 2021 as more people took out loans to purchase houses amid soaring property costs, data showed Tuesday. The proportion of middle-aged South Koreans who borrowed money from banks or other financial institutes came to 57.3 [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will push to change regulations in a way that would allow investors to know how much they would receive in dividends before buying stocks in a bid to attract more foreign investment in the local equity market, a senior official of the country’s top financial regulator said [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Seven in 10 Koreans with mortgage loans saw their interest burden increase compared to last year amid a steep increase in interest rates, a poll showed Tuesday. According to a survey conducted by home matching platform Zigbang Co. of 948 users of its application, 41.4 percent of the respondents [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Alarm bells are ringing for South Korea’s credit card industry, which has many vulnerable debtors, including those with low income and low credit scores, as the repayment capability of debtors is showing signs of deteriorating due to the recent hike in the benchmark interest rate. The nation’s seven major [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean credit card company has released a new card targeting consumers who actually want to pay on an installment plan at places like restaurants but hesitate to do so in fear of losing face in front of their acquaintances. LOCA NANUGI Card, released by Lotte Card Co., [...]