SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Thanks to poor net interest margins, which have reached the lowest levels in history, Korean banks are suffering from worsening profitability. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the net interest margin for domestic banks in Q1 2016 was 1.55 percent, which was a 0.08 percent decline from Q1 [...]
SEOUL, June 14 (Korea Bizwire) – A ruthless employer has chosen to pay his foreign workers their overdue wages with 22,000 coins. Foreign workers from Uzbekistan who worked at a construction site in South Gyeongsang Province’s Changnyeong County were given unpaid wages of 4.4 million won on June 9, all in coins. The builder gave them [...]
SEOUL, May 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Two major foreign banks in South Korea suffered declines in their first-quarter profit due to a lack of growth drivers and declining net interest margins, the companies said Tuesday. In the three months ending March 31, Standard Chartered Bank Korea posted a 22.6 percent on-year drop in its first-quarter [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) – The soundness of Korean banks is significantly lower than those of the US, Canada and North Europe. Risk management failures are contributing to increasing rates of weak credit, and Return on Equity (ROE) is lower than ever. According to KB Financial Group (KBFG), the distressed-debt ratios of banks in [...]
SEOUL, May 9 (Korea Bizwire) – More than 1,800 jobs vanished from the financial sector in 2015. Financial institutions have downsized their workforces due to weakening profit margins and the increasing ubiquity of fintech and automated branches, which require fewer employees. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the number of employees at financial institutions [...]
SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The chief of the South Korean banks’ association said on Wednesday that the ongoing industrial restructuring will have little impact on local commercial banks, citing their minor exposure to financially troubled companies. In a press conference held in Germany on the sidelines of the 49th Asia Development Bank annual [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean banks’ lending to large companies fell in the first nine months of the year amid a protracted economic slump, despite an upturn in overall loans, industry data showed Monday. Outstanding loans extended by Shinhan Bank, Kookmin Bank and four other major lenders reached 1,035.85 trillion won (US$898.6 [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator said Wednesday that it will pave the way for local banks to invest in financial technology firms as part of its efforts to boost the integration of the two industries. According to current financial laws, financial institutions are allowed to buy stakes in or [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator said Thursday that he will relax regulations on bank ownership in order to pave the way for information technology firms to invest in the untouched Internet-only bank sector. Under the current laws, an industrial company is banned from holding more than a 4 percent [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Loans extended by South Korean banks to companies using their high-level technologies as collateral have soared 70-fold in the past seven months on a strong drive by the government, industry data showed Wednesday, spawning concerns that a huge chunk of such loans could turn sour, thus undermining lenders’ financial [...]