SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, reported Monday that its second-quarter net income dropped 31 percent from a year earlier on increased loan-loss reserves. Net income stood at 14.7 billion won (US$11 million) in the April-June period, compared with a net profit of 21.3 billion won a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banking sector has become entangled in a series of massive corruption scandals, revealing serious weaknesses in its internal control systems. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Wednesday launched an emergency investigation after receiving allegations that employees of DGB Daegu Bank, located in the southeastern city of Daegu, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean online lender Kakao Bank said Wednesday its second-quarter net profit soared 44 percent from a year earlier on growth in interest revenue and an expanded customer base. Its net profit stood at 81.9 billion won (US$63.6 million) in the April-June period, up from a profit of 57 [...]
SEOUL, July 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean online lender KakaoBank Corp. said Tuesday it will be introducing a “personal vault” service, allowing users to store documents and photos as computer files. Depending on the level of sensitivity associated with each file, users will have the option to implement additional security measures. For instance, less [...]
SEOUL, June 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Financial regulators have issued a strong warning to certain insurers for engaging in unethical practices by promoting insurance sales based on the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the potential increase in cancer rates due to contaminated water discharge. The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service announced on Thursday [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks saw their first-quarter net profit rise 24 percent from a year earlier on higher interest and non-interest income, preliminary data showed Friday. Their combined net profit came to 7 trillion won (US$5.4 billion) in the January-March period, up from 5.6 trillion won tallied a year ago, [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Pay Corp., the fintech unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao, said Thursday it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Siebert Financial Corp., a U.S. brokerage firm, as part of efforts to expand its financial business abroad. Kakao Pay said in a regulatory filing it has signed [...]
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Toss Bank, the country’s third internet-only banking firm, said Friday it suffered a loss last year due to increased loan-loss reserves. Toss Bank, which went into operation in October 2021, reported a net loss of 264.4 billion won (US$203.3 million) in 2022, the lender said in a statement. Toss [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Monday that local banks showed no signs of abnormality in their withdrawal and deposit operations. The assessment by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) came amid concerns of a global banking crisis following the recent failures of two U.S. banks — Silicon Valley Bank and [...]
SEOUL, March 17 (Korea Bizwire) — As a bank run carried out from smartphones has been identified as one of the factors behind the rapid downfall of Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed in just 36 hours, concerns are growing that South Korea’s online lenders could also fall prey to a fast-moving bank run. Under the [...]