SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s two policy lenders have shouldered massive bad loans, estimated at 5.5 trillion won (US$4.75 billion), over the past five years, due to a series of collapses of big name companies during the economic slump, a report said Tuesday. The Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Nonghyup Financial Group Inc., South Korea’s fourth-largest banking group by assets, is considering buying banks in Indonesia and Myanmar in a bid to expand its overseas business and diversify its portfolio, the group’s chairman said Monday. Nonghyup Financial is the biggest state-run agricultural cooperative whose stakeholders include farms and [...]
SEOUL, July 30 (Korea Bizwire)-Bankbooks have been issued ever since banks were established in Korea.But aftermore than 100 years of existence, they are going the way of the dodo. Bankbooks will no longer be issued from September 2017, but starting in September this year, in order to ease people into the new system, incentives will [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator on Wednesday gave preliminary approval for the merger of two flagship banks of Hana Financial Group Inc., the country’s third-largest banking group by assets. Hana Financial had been pushing for the merger between Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) since its acquisition of [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea announced a fresh plan Tuesday to sell state-run Woori Bank following four previous failures to put the country’s third-largest lender into private hands, a state committee said. The government has been trying to sell its 51.04 percent stake in the bank since 2010 in a bid to [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator is planning to give preliminary approval for the merger of two flagship banks of Hana Financial Group Inc., the country’s third-largest banking group by assets, later this week, officials said Sunday. Hana Financial has tried to merge Hana Bank and the Korea Exchange Bank [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major banks reduced loans to large companies over the past year as they became more reluctant to lend to them amid a series of massive bankruptcies, industry data showed Sunday. Six lenders, including industry leaders Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, extended a combined 95.7 trillion won (US$83.5 [...]
SEOUL, July 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Major banking group Hana Financial Group said Monday that it plans to complete a merger between its two banking units — Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) — before October as KEB’s labor union has agreed on the proposed merger. Hana Financial has been pushing for the merger since its [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — POSCO signed a Share Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) with the Public Investment Fund (“PIF”) of Saudi Arabia for sale of POSCO E&C shares. The transaction brings in KRW1.24 trillion of foreign investment into Korea. On June 15, 2015, POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon and PIF Secretary General Abdulrahman M. Al Mofadhi [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Shinhan Bank, South Korea’s third-largest commercial bank by asset, said Monday that it has concluded a deal to acquire a controlling stake in an Indonesian bank as part of its efforts to beef up its overseas presence. Under the contract, Shinhan Bank buys 75 percent in Centratama Nasional Bank [...]