SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Toss Bank, one of the country’s internet-only banking services, on Wednesday said it suffered a massive loss in the first half of the year due to increased loan-loss reserves and other costs. Net loss came to 124.3 billion won (US$92.7 million) on a consolidated basis in the January-June period, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The estimated cost of preparing “charye” during this year’s Chuseok fall harvest holiday climbed 6.4 percent from a year ago amid growing inflationary pressure, a research center survey showed Monday. Charye is a ceremonial Chuseok ritual honoring deceased ancestors and is usually accompanied by various types of traditional Korean [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial watchdog has launched an inspection into Morgan Stanley as part of efforts to intensify monitoring of stock short selling that has been blamed for excessive market swings, industry sources said Monday. The inspection came about two weeks after Lee Bok-hyun, the head of the Financial Supervisory [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — An increasing number of financial institutions are replacing redundant work with automation robots to improve work efficiency. The Korea Technology Finance Corp. (KOTEC) is applying Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology for its entire in-house operations. The KOTEC introduced RPA in 2019 and started automation from simple clerical work such [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean overseas direct purchasers are turning towards Japan to enjoy more affordable prices amid the yen’s prolonged weakness. Shinhan Card Co., a major South Korean credit card company, said the number of settlements made by its customers for overseas direct purchases from Japan during the first seven months [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major advertising agencies are ramping up non-fungible token (NFT) ventures in a bid to develop new growth engines. Cheil Worldwide Inc., the advertising arm of Samsung Group, said Thursday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S.-based NFT marketplace CYPHRLY, a subsidiary of South Korea’s leading [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Apartments in taller buildings are more expensive in the greater Seoul area, a real estate big data company said Wednesday. Real Estate R114 made a price comparison of 3,403,812 apartments in the greater Seoul area sorted by floor, which showed that the average apartment price in buildings that are [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will seek a joint response with the European Union over the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act that excludes electric vehicles assembled outside of North America from tax incentives, the industry ministry said Thursday. The law, signed by U.S. President Joe Biden last week, calls for the expansion of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean retail investors’ bond purchases have surged this year as they seek safe-haven assets amid rising interest rates and a bearish stock market, data showed Wednesday. Local individual investors had bought a net 10.2 trillion won (US$7.6 billion) worth of bonds over the counter this year as of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of new property developer registrations reached an all-time high in the first half of this year despite the real estate market’s entry into an adjustment phase, thanks to rising demand for the development of non-residential buildings, including shopping centers. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and [...]