SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — With more than one in four South Korean households now raising a pet, real estate developers are racing to appeal to so-called “pet families” by building apartments with dedicated pet-friendly amenities. According to data released Thursday by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 28.6 percent of households [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Illegal private lending and debt collection crimes in South Korea have more than doubled in the past three years, with authorities warning that exploitative lenders are increasingly preying on financially vulnerable groups such as young job seekers. According to data released Thursday by Rep. Han Byung-do, violations of lending [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — With South Korea’s stock market stuck in a holding pattern, investors are pouring money into bond-focused exchange-traded funds, underscoring a shift toward safer assets amid global economic uncertainty. According to Koscom data released Thursday, Samsung Asset Management’s KODEX Money Market Active and Korea Investment Trust’s ACE Money Market Active [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Worker productivity at South Korea’s five largest commercial banks jumped nearly 27 percent in the first half of 2025, topping 200 million won ($147,000) per employee for the first time, according to regulatory filings. The gains narrowed a long-standing gap with internet-only banks, whose per-capita profit, while still higher [...]
BUSAN, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s state-run Korea Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) said Monday it will roll out a pilot program this year that allows ordinary citizens to become shipowners through fractional investment. The initiative, to be conducted under existing securities and asset securitization laws, will issue profit-linked securities backed by vessels already [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Uncertainty surrounding the United States’ trade policy alone is estimated to reduce South Korea’s economic growth rate by about 0.13 percentage point this year, the central bank said Monday. In late July, Seoul and Washington reached a crucial agreement in which the U.S. imposes a 15 percent tariff on [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulators said Wednesday they will impose significantly harsher penalties on accounting fraud, expanding fines for both companies and executives in an effort to close loopholes that have allowed senior management to escape responsibility. Under the new framework approved by the Securities and Futures Commission, fines for [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — More than eight out of 10 bond traders expect the central bank to keep its policy rate steady this week amid housing market instability and increased volatility in the foreign exchange market, a survey showed Tuesday. According to the survey conducted by the Korea Financial Investment Association last week, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A new breed of company, built on hoarding cryptocurrencies as core assets, is reshaping stock markets from the United States to Japan — and now South Korea. But the meteoric rise of these so-called Crypto Treasury Companies (CTCs) has triggered debate over whether they represent innovative investment vehicles or dangerous [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major securities firms are intensifying efforts to break into the short-term note business, highlighting their commitment to venture capital investment amid tightening regulatory scrutiny. Currently a 40 trillion-won ($30 billion) market, the short-term note sector is regarded as a critical funding channel for large investment banks. Only [...]