SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Wednesday it will ease some rules on financial firms investing in fintech firms, as part of its effort to promote the fintech industry. The new guideline, unveiled by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), will expand the scope of fintech firms for which financial firms’ [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The financial regulator said Friday it will encourage banks to provide mid-rate policy loans worth 1 trillion won (US$886 million) to desperate borrowers from next year, as part of ongoing efforts to relieve their debt burdens. About 3 million borrowers, who have no option but to borrow money from [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — The government plans to gradually cut the maximum interest rate that private lenders can charge to 20 percent per annum, the financial regulator said Thursday. In a parliamentary audit meeting, Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Choi Jong-ku said the plan is aimed at further easing the financial burdens on [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The financial regulator said Tuesday it will help people retrieve money mistakenly sent to wrong bank accounts. The move came as the number of erroneous transactions has been on the rise with more people using their smartphones for money transfers. If a person sends money to a wrong account, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The head of the financial regulator said Tuesday that technology firms could become a top shareholder of an Internet-only bank as the government moves to ease regulations on Web-only banks’ ownership structure. Under the current banking law, a nonfinancial firm is banned from owning 4 percent of voting stocks [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The financial regulator said Wednesday it will draw up a plan to further cut commission fees charged by credit-card firms on small merchants. In a report to a parliamentary committee, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said it will begin work on recalculating costs of credit-card processing fees. The move [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The government will increase its policy support for public financial institutions so they can make more social impact investments, officials said Wednesday. Unlike charities or donations, so-called impact investments are aimed at offering funds to small companies or cooperatives for social causes that can generate financial returns. Chairing a [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The government has announced a series of reforms to boost the South Korean financial technology industry, which could see brand new products including artificial intelligence-based insurance products introduced. The plans revealed by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) on Tuesday revealed a number of new financial products, including insurance products based [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — More than perhaps any other business sector, the phalanx of rules and regulations guarding the gates into financial services for new entrants has been imposing, a reality the government has decided to change in order to encourage the emergence of more specialized actors. Financial Services Commission head Choi Jong-gu [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The amount of crowdfunding in South Korea soared about 60 percent last year, data showed Wednesday, signaling the platform grew as an effective financing option for startups. According to the data by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), 183 companies raised a combined 27.8 billion won (US$25.9 million) last year, [...]