SEOUL, Mar. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Bank, South Korea’s second Internet-only bank, said Thursday it will launch a rights offering worth 500 billion won (US$467.7 million) by April to beef up its capital. It will be the second time that Kakao Bank, which was launched last July, raised its capital via a rights offer. [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – President Moon Jae-in is expected to announce the nominee for the next governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK) early next week, a presidential official said Friday. Asked whether the presidential office will make the announcement next Monday, the official replied, “It is likely.” BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol’s four-year term concludes at the end of this month and the new BOK head is facing challenges [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s four major financial holding firms saw their net profits rise last year as interest income increased, according to industry data on Thursday. The combined net profit of KB Financial, Shinhan Financial, Hana Financial and Woori Bank stood at 9.77 trillion won (US$8.98 billion) lastyear, up more than 30 percent from a year earlier. KB Financial’s net profit jumped 54.5 percent on-year last year, and [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s two major banks are suspected of creating lists to give undue hiring favors to the families and acquaintances of influential figures, sources said Sunday. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has recently filed complaints with the prosecution against five banks, including KEB Hana Bank and KB Kookmin Bank, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) said Thursday it will launch self-service shops during the latter half of the year amid growing non-face-to-face transactions. “We are sending some employees to Japan next month so they can look into self-service stores there to catch up with the growing proportion of non-face-to-face [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Unions in the South Korean banking sector are demanding a position on the board of directors to better represent themselves with management. According to sources close to the banking industry, an increasing number of financial institutions including KB Financial Group, Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank are addressing calls from labor [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Six South Korean banks will begin issuing new trading accounts for cryptocurrencies next week by introducing a system that bans the use of anonymous accounts in cryptocurrency transactions, a senior financial regulator said Tuesday. When the banks introduce the system of verifying cryptocurrency investors’ identification next Tuesday, current virtual [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator said Sunday that it will tighten capital regulations on high-risk household lending, in the latest move meant to slow the pace of household debt growth. The stricter regulations will be applied to banks, savings banks and insurance firms that provide loans to home buyers [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea’s largest lenders, will serve as the title sponsor for the nation’s top professional baseball league over the next three seasons. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced its three-year partnership with Shinhan on Monday. The amount of the sponsorship fee and the new league emblem will be unveiled at a signing ceremony in Seoul on Tuesday. Shinhan Bank also owns a [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwie) — The PyeongChang Winter Olympics will only accept Visa credit cards for purchases of tickets, souvenirs and other goods at the games venues, officials said Sunday, a move that could cause inconvenience for people who use other cards. Visa enjoys the exclusive right to be the only credit card that [...]