SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Friday it will expand the disclosure of information on loan-deposit rate differences as part of efforts to promote competition in the banking sector amid criticism that it has been bent on making profits from the “interest business” without diversifying income sources. Banks have been [...]
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Corporate borrowers are flocking to the local debt market to take advantage of stabilizing market rates and strong investor demand, with even low-rated players coming back to raise money. Since late October last year, corporate borrowers’ borrowing costs had been on the rise in tandem with rising market rates [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The value of foreign securities held by South Korean institutions fell in 2022 due to losses from heightened global market volatility, data showed Thursday. The outstanding amount of foreign securities held by institutional investors is estimated at US$365.29 billion as of the end of December, down from the previous [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — K-Bank, a South Korean internet-only bank, reported Thursday that its net income in 2022 nearly quadrupled to a record high thanks to a spike in interest income. K-Bank’s net income came to 83.6 billion won (US$64 million) last year, up from a net profit of 22.5 billion won reported [...]
SEOUL, March 1 (Korea Bizwire) — With the value of losses caused by voice phishing estimated at about 1.7 trillion won (US$1.28 billion) over the past five years, South Korean banks are exploring various measures to limit future losses from similar criminal activity. Shinhan Bank introduced an alarm system in March last year that uses [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) and the amount of funds raised from the process in 2022 decreased sharply due to market uncertainty caused by inflation and monetary tightening in major countries, data showed Monday. A total of 70 companies made their debuts on the main KOSPI and [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean credit card companies saw the number of customer complaints rise sharply in the fourth quarter of last year, amid rising controversy over the moral hazard of the financial firms, ignited by their payment of hefty performance bonuses. According to the Credit Finance Association of Korea, the nation’s [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The top 0.1 percent of wealthy individuals in South Korea earned nearly 70 times more than the median income earners in 2021, data showed Saturday. Statistics from the National Tax Service cited by Rep. Yang Kyung-sook of the opposition Democratic Party also showed the share of the total income [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Conflicts over repair costs accounted for the largest share of commercial lease disputes in Seoul last year, the city government said said Thursday. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 188 dispute cases were filed with the commercial lease dispute coordination committee last year, of which 28.2 percent or 53 [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s household credit shrank at the sharpest pace in 13 years in the fourth quarter of 2022 amid high interest rates driven by the central bank’s monetary tightening to bring down inflation, data showed Tuesday. Outstanding household loans reached 1,867.0 trillion won (US$1.44 trillion) at the end of [...]