SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) – The Export-Import Bank of Korea, one of South Korea’s state-run policy banks, suffered a net loss of 1.46 trillion won (US$1.3 billion) last year, hit by higher provisions against its loans extended to the country’s ailing shipbuilding industry. It was the first time that the bank reported an annual [...]
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The Internet bank of Kakao Corp., South Korea’s dominant chat app, is expected to win a final regulatory approval early next month, an industry source said Thursday, clearing the final hurdle for Kakao to launch the nation’s second Internet bank. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) will hold a meeting [...]
SEOUL, March 28 (Korea Bizwire) – Banks in South Korea sharply downsized their headcounts, branches and automated instruments in 2016 to cut costs amid rapid growth in mobile and Internet banking, government data showed Tuesday. The combined workforce of lenders operating in the country stood at 114,775 as of the end of last year, down [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Two-thirds of South Korean firms plan to increase their spending on facility investment this year, a survey by the central bank showed Monday, as the nation’s exports show signs of a recovery. The Bank of Korea said in a statement that 66.7 percent of the 271 manufacturers checked said [...]
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) – One of the industries that self-driving vehicles will reshape is the insurance sector, and the question of who should take responsibility in the event of an accident is still being debated in several countries, including South Korea, where autonomous vehicles are just starting to be introduced to the market. [...]
SEOUL, March 13 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s largest financial institution, Shinhan Bank, is scrapping paper forms, and instead, going digital in an all-out effort to raise productivity. From today, all Shinhan branches will provide most banking services digitally, including applications for accounts and credit cards. Shinhan’s bold move to replace paper with digital counterparts [...]
SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) – The issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) in South Korea tumbled nearly 27 percent in 2016 from a year earlier as the local property market remained sluggish, data showed Tuesday. The amount of ABS issues totaled 60.7 trillion won (US$52.6 billion) last year, down 26.8 percent from the previous year, [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top-three life insurers – Samsung, Hanwha and Kyobo – have decided to pay all overdue suicide claims, giving in to regulators’ punitive steps, industry officials said Thursday. Samsung will pay a total of 174 billion won (US$152 million) in respect of its policyholders who committed suicide on [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s financial regulator on Thursday ordered three insurance firms to halt some of their operations as a punitive measure over their overdue suicide insurance benefits. The three insurers — Samsung Life Insurance, Hanwha Life Insurance and Kyobo Life Insurance — have been criticized for failing to pay out [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Ticket Monster, South Korea’s leading social commerce company, announced Tuesday the launch of a comparative website dubbed T-Mon Finance Mall (translated), which allows customers to compare some 5,800 on and offline financial products from 220 companies. The products available include credit cards, insurance, loans, bank accounts, installment savings, and [...]