SEOUL, March 14 (Korea Bizwire) – The combined market capitalization of South Korean stocks held by foreigners has exceeded 511 trillion won (US$445 billion), hitting an all-time high, data showed Tuesday. Foreigners have purchased a net 4.22 trillion won worth of shares here this year alone, helping drive up the benchmark index KOSPI to 2,117.59 [...]
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) – Import restrictions in the U.S. and China against South Korean products targeting steel, electronics and cosmetics are on the rise, the Korea International Trade Association said today. As of February, 23 restrictions are being imposed on Korean products exported into the US, and 13 in China. The number is up [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – Over half of South Korean consumers now shop online through a mobile device, rather than a desktop computer, according to Statistics Korea. In January of this year, online shopping through mobile devices accounted for more than 58 percent of all online sales in South Korea, the highest percentage since records [...]
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. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s short-term foreign debt rose 0.8 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, central bank data showed Wednesday. The country’s short-term external debt, with a maturity of one year or less, totaled US$105.2 billion as of the end of 2016, up $800 million from the end of 2015, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – The local stock market is struggling to attract young investors amid prolonged economic hardships, a record high youth unemployment rate, and an increasing number of “house poor” individuals and families. Besides the fact that the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) has hovered in the same 1,850 – [...]
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 [...]