SEOUL, March 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks saw their 2022 earnings rise nearly 10 percent from a year earlier on sharply increased interest income, data showed Thursday. Their combined net profit came to 18.5 trillion won (US$14.1 billion) last year, up 9.6 percent from the previous year, according to the preliminary data from [...]
SEOUL, March 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial authorities called on local banks to ramp up efforts to prepare for possible crises amid the fallout from the collapses of two U.S. banks, officials said Thursday. The call came after the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which sparked concerns over their [...]
SEOUL, March 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid growing interest in the protection of depositors resulting from the collapse of the United States-based Silicon Valley Bank, the value of uninsured deposits is estimated at more than 100 trillion won (US$762 billion) in South Korea, data showed Wednesday. According to the data that Rep. Kim Hee-gon of [...]
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Friday it will expand the disclosure of information on loan-deposit rate differences as part of efforts to promote competition in the banking sector amid criticism that it has been bent on making profits from the “interest business” without diversifying income sources. Banks have been [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, reported Thursday that its net income in 2022 nearly quadrupled to a record high thanks to a spike in interest income. K-Bank’s net income came to 83.6 billion won (US$64 million) last year, up from a net profit of 22.5 billion won reported [...]
SEOUL, March 1 (Korea Bizwire) — With the value of losses caused by voice phishing estimated at about 1.7 trillion won (US$1.28 billion) over the past five years, South Korean banks are exploring various measures to limit future losses from similar criminal activity. Shinhan Bank introduced an alarm system in March last year that uses [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — About 2,200 employees of South Korea’s major commercial banks have left on voluntary retirement since late last year in return for receiving huge severance pay. According to industry sources, KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank reflected their voluntary retirement expenses in their fourth-quarter results. These banks provided [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean internet-only kakaobank said Wednesday that its net profit hit an all-time high last year thanks to increased interest income. Its net profit came to 263.1 billion won (US$208.5 million) in 2022, up 28.9 percent from the previous year, the lender said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea returned to their pre-pandemic operation hours for the first time in about 1 1/2 years Monday in line with the government’s eased virus curbs despite their labor unions’ protest. First-tier banks, including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH Nonghyup, along with other financial institutions, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A financial regulator chief on Thursday warned of stern action against labor unions opposing banks’ plan to “normalize” their pandemic-caused shortened operation hours as the government is set to lift the indoor mask mandate later this month. “As far as I know, employers have determined the stance (of normalizing [...]