SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Household loans extended by banks in South Korea declined for the first time in 18 years last year, due mainly to higher borrowing costs, the central bank’s data showed Thursday. Banks’ outstanding household loans decreased by 2.6 trillion won (US$2.09 billion) to 1,058.1 trillion won, according to the data [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — An unexpected boom of voluntary retirement is spreading across the South Korea’s banking industry, which has seen a major surge in profits in the last couple of years. KB Kookmin Bank received some 730 applications for voluntary retirement recently, up by more than 50 applications since January of last [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Five major South Korean banks have offered a voluntary retirement program to their 2,400 employees this year despite record profits amid higher interest rates, industry sources said Sunday. The voluntary retirement plans at the five lenders — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, and NH Nonghyup – are accelerating as [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — To bring higher satisfaction to customers and to protect the environment, South Korea’s banking industry is changing how new year calendars for customers are distributed. Woori Bank, for example, made its 2023 calendar using eco-friendly paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. To ensure easy recycling, the triangular stand [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea earned record net interest income in the first three quarters of the year, helped by sharp rate hikes by the central bank, data showed Thursday. Their interest revenue in the January-September period stood at a combined 40.6 trillion won (US$30.3 billion), up 6.9 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid the upward trend in interest rates, South Korean banks have released a string of high interest rate deposit and installment savings products. Such products, however, have complicated preferential conditions, making it difficult for depositors to receive the highest interest rate. Welcome Savings Bank, for instance, released a 12-month [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean banks saw their net profit decline 9.9 percent on-year in the first half as their non-interest income shrank, data showed Thursday. Their combined net income came to 9.9 trillion won (US$7.5 billion) in the January-June period, compared with a profit of 11 trillion won tallied a year [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea have offered hefty bonuses to their executives on the back of the profits they chalked up by steadily raising interest rates over the past three years, a lawmaker said Wednesday. The aggregate value of bonuses given to the executives at the nation’s top four commercial [...]
SEOUL, July 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator said Tuesday it is necessary to ease a rule that restricts industrial businesses from owning banks, saying that such deregulation could generate mega players like BTS in the financial sector. The government restricts industrial capital from being used to purchase stakes in banks and [...]
SEOUL, July 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Short-term saving products are gaining popularity as the stereotype of saving money by pouring money into deposit or installment saving products for more than one year has lost appeal. KakaoBank Corp., a South Korean internet-only bank, released the ’26 week-long installment saving product’ in June 2018, and the number [...]