SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – The government will decide soon whether to sell its remaining stake in Woori Bank, the nation’s top financial regulator said Monday. As part of a plan to privatize Woori Bank, the government sold a 28 percent stake to seven institutional investors last year but still holds an 18 percent [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – KB Financial Group Inc.’s chairman nomination committee said Thursday it named current chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo the sole candidate for next chairman. Yoon, has held the post since 2014, became the sole candidate as two other rivals dropped out of the race. Yoon, 62, started his career at the Korea [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – A job expo for the financial services industry on September 13 attracted throngs of young men and women in their finest, some lining up hours before the event opened to get a chance for an interview with one of the top 6 banks (Kookmin, Shinhan, KEB Hana, Woori, Nonghyup [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s publicly offered overseas investment funds are regaining popularity among local investors, data showed Friday, as they seek tax benefits and higher returns. According to the data by the Korea Financial Investment Association, the combined net worth of such funds came to 39.4 trillion won (US$34.9 billion) as [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – Kakao Bank, South Korea’s second Internet-only bank, implemented a 500 billion won (US$441.9 million) capital increase on Tuesday as a part of a refinancing plan to bolster its lending business. Kakao Bank, launched in late July with paid-in capital of 300 billion won, has attracted about three million accounts [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea saw their financial health improve slightly in the second quarter of this year helped by modest gains in their profits, the financial regulator said Wednesday. The average capital adequacy ratio of 18 commercial and state-run banks stood at 15.37 percent as of end-June, up 0.23 [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The Bank of Korea submitted a report to the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly today in which it predicted that this year’s economic growth would fall short of 3 percent despite the improving global economy and supplementary revisions made to the national budget. The central bank [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – Corporate lending extended by South Korea’s nonbank financial institutions surged nearly 17 percent in the first half of the year amid tougher rules for household loans, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding corporate loans by local secondary financial institutions, including credit cooperatives and savings banks, came to 113.4 trillion [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Only one month after the launch of Kakao Bank, the groundbreaking financial institution still enjoys great popularity, having already attracted some 3 million account holders. Pre-existing banks that had already entered the mobile financial space and K-Bank, the first internet bank in Korea, haven’t been able to draw as [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — A report released on August 22 ranking the fourteen major life insurance companies by risk-based capital ratios showed four of the top five places occupied by foreign companies. Samsung Life Insurance held down second place with a 331.8 risk-based capital ratio (RBC), followed closely by Lina Life Insurance with [...]