SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea stole more than 100 million won (US$88,100) in the virtual currency bitcoin from 2013-2015 as part of efforts to increase the country’s hard currency, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday. Choi Sang-myong, a senior official at South Korea’s cybersecurity firm Hauri Inc., told the U.S.-based media outlet that [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Obtaining discounts on health insurance premiums will become much easier for South Koreans starting in July. Discounted contracts, which provide up to 20 percent discounts on existing installments, are offered by 14 insurance companies for healthy individuals who meet certain health standards. However, only 3.8 percent of the subscribers [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s household loans extended by local banks rose 10 percent in March from a year earlier due to increased mortgages, central bank data showed Wednesday. Outstanding household loans from local lenders came to 713.9 trillion won (US$621 billion) as of end-March, compared with 649 trillion won from a [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) – The won’s movement against the dollar widened slightly in March from a month earlier, central bank data showed Wednesday. The session-over-session changes in the dollar-won exchange rate averaged 0.47 percent last month, compared to 0.39 in February, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said. “The won rose against the dollar [...]
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Seven major credit card companies are being accused of exploiting their customers after reports emerged showing they profited handsomely from high-interest loans despite prevailing low interest rates. Low interest rates in South Korea are seeing credit card companies enjoy some of the biggest profit spikes in recent years, with some [...]
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Organizers of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games have selected KEB Hana Bank as their main banking partner, a senior Olympic official said Tuesday. The official said the two sides have wrapped up their negotiations that began in February, and will announce their deal in a ceremony at KEB Hana [...]
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) – A majority of South Korean manufacturing companies expect their business conditions to improve in the second quarter of the year amid signs of a recovery in exports, a poll showed Tuesday. According to the survey of 645 manufacturers conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET), [...]
SEJONG, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s tax agency has imposed more than 300 billion won (US$262 million) in corporate taxes on the local unit of U.S. tech giant Oracle Corp. for alleged tax evasion, sources familiar with the issue said Monday. The National Tax Service (NTS) took the action against Oracle Korea as [...]
SEOUL, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Samsung Electronics Co. could be required to pay additional corporate taxes due to an accounting error, industry sources here said Monday. The total that the tech giant may be ordered to pay has not been announced but sources said it could be a sizable sum, presumably more than 500bln [...]
SEJONG, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s financial services industry recorded 9.2 percent in output growth last year largely driven by interest revenues from growing household loans, government data showed on Sunday. According to Statistics Korea, the year-on-year production growth of financial institutions in 2016 was more than triple the 3 percent reported for the overall services industry. By institution, banks gained 9 percent, the highest since 11.8 percent in 2008. Nonbank [...]