SEOUL, July 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Foreign banks in Korea are going all out to target high-net-worth individuals. With the prolonged decline in net interest margins and the prevalence of mobile banking, banks in Korea have seen former revenue streams dry up. Foreign banks are seeking a breakthrough by diversifying their services in asset management. [...]
SEOUL, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) – “What is the use of interest rates if they are already too low? Aren’t you tired of entering long account numbers every time you transfer money?” Kakao Bank, an Internet-only bank, held a presentation to discuss its business model and the future of its services on Wednesday, July 6, at [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp. said Monday its mobile payment platform Kakao Pay currently has more than 10 million users, roughly 19 months after its launch in the country. Introduced in September 2014 and similar to the world-famous PayPal, users pre-register their credit and debit cards, [...]
SEOUL, June 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Deposit interest rates have fallen so low that consumers can’t even pay a single ATM fee with their annual interest income, and their distress is compounded by the latest policies from the big banks to increase wire transfer and ATM fees. The annual nominal interest rate for a savings [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) – A recent study has shown that mobile applications are the most sought-after means of applying for small loans, credit card loans, and even cash advances. Last month, Internet banking company K Bank commissioned a survey from market researcher Macromill Embrain in which 1,000 people between the ages of 25 and [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Thanks to poor net interest margins, which have reached the lowest levels in history, Korean banks are suffering from worsening profitability. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the net interest margin for domestic banks in Q1 2016 was 1.55 percent, which was a 0.08 percent decline from Q1 [...]
SEOUL, May 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Two major foreign banks in South Korea suffered declines in their first-quarter profit due to a lack of growth drivers and declining net interest margins, the companies said Tuesday. In the three months ending March 31, Standard Chartered Bank Korea posted a 22.6 percent on-year drop in its first-quarter [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) – The soundness of Korean banks is significantly lower than those of the US, Canada and North Europe. Risk management failures are contributing to increasing rates of weak credit, and Return on Equity (ROE) is lower than ever. According to KB Financial Group (KBFG), the distressed-debt ratios of banks in [...]
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Following Wednesday’s unexpected election results that saw the opposition Minjoo Party perform much better than expected, previous calls for quantitative easing from the Saenuri Party are increasingly unlikely to come to fruition. The quantitative easing measures were suggested by Kang Bong-gyun, who spearheaded the Saenuri’s Party election campaign, causing conflict between the [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea and China on Monday agreed to extend their currency swap deal scheduled to expire next year in a bid to better cope with possible fallout stemming from mounting financial market uncertainties and widely expected U.S. rate hikes. South Korea’s Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho met with People’s Bank of [...]