SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean financial companies are beefing up efforts to foster their own characters based on judgment that they would help attract more customers. Among the characters that are famous in the banking industry is Shinhan Bank’s polar bear “SOL,” designed based on the motif of the Little Bear that [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Controversy is flaring up over banks’ loan-deposit margins as households are suffering from higher interest rate burdens while banks are chalking up huge profits by raising loan interest rates higher than deposit rates. The combined net profit of the nation’s five major financial holding firms — KB Financial Group [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean banks’ overseas operations saw their earnings jump nearly 62 percent in 2021 from a year earlier on higher interest income, data showed Wednesday. The combined net profit of local lenders’ 204 overseas subsidiaries and branches stood at US$1.17 billion in 2021, up 62.1 percent from a year [...]
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea continued to reduce the number of their offline branches in 2021 as part of efforts to reduce costs amid the expanded use of mobile banking, data showed Wednesday. The number of brick-and-mortar branches run by local banks came to 6,904 as of end-2021, down 311 [...]
SEOUL, March 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks in South Korea saw their combined net profit surge about 40 percent in 2021 thanks to increased interest income from the central bank’s rate hikes, data showed Wednesday. The combined net profit of 20 local banks came to 16.9 trillion won (US$13.6 billion) in 2021, up 39.4 percent [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major commercial banks have launched a series of video consultation windows, enabling customers to enjoy a variety of banking services through video consultations with bank specialists. Woori Bank opened its video consultation window ‘digital desk’ on Monday. For those who visit the bank’s branches, the digital desk’s [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Lee Hong-jun (alias), an 80-year-old man living outside of Seoul, always finds it frustrating when he has to handle online banking via his mobile phone as he has trouble going through what seems to be endless and complicated digital procedures. Having retired over 20 years ago, Lee now feels [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid a rapid hike in lending rates, an online petition calling for the government to prevent commercial banks from excessive profiteering was submitted to the presidential office. The petition, filed through Cheong Wa Dae’s website on Nov. 5, claimed that financial institutions are chalking up excessive profits by raising [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s banking industry is performing a variety of experiments to ensure efficient and cost-effective branch operations, while, at the same time, speeding up the restructuring of branches as a way to promote a digital transformation. KEB Hana Bank and the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) joined hands to [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial authorities have called on local banks to tighten their screening for unsecured loans as part of efforts to cope with rising household debt, sources said Thursday. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently required all commercial lenders to submit their plans to adjust caps on credit loans [...]