SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean credit card companies saw the number of customer complaints rise sharply in the fourth quarter of last year, amid rising controversy over the moral hazard of the financial firms, ignited by their payment of hefty performance bonuses. According to the Credit Finance Association of Korea, the nation’s [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The top 0.1 percent of wealthy individuals in South Korea earned nearly 70 times more than the median income earners in 2021, data showed Saturday. Statistics from the National Tax Service cited by Rep. Yang Kyung-sook of the opposition Democratic Party also showed the share of the total income [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s household credit shrank at the sharpest pace in 13 years in the fourth quarter of 2022 amid high interest rates driven by the central bank’s monetary tightening to bring down inflation, data showed Tuesday. Outstanding household loans reached 1,867.0 trillion won (US$1.44 trillion) at the end of [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — With the anticipated introduction of Apple Pay, a mobile payment service from Apple Inc., Hyundai Card Co. held an “apple festival” to celebrate its status as the country’s sole service provider. The company held a surprise event on Monday, giving out apples to all employees at its headquarters in [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to more than double its foreign-exchange trading hours and allow offshore firms to participate in the market in line with efforts to attract more investment from overseas, the financial authorities said Tuesday. Under the plan, Asia’s No. 4 economy will extend the operating hours of its [...]
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 [...]