SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The board of Woori Bank on Thursday named its acting chief Sohn Tae-seung the new head of South Korea’s No. 3 lender, officials said. Sohn, the lender’s executive vice president and head of the global business group, was designated to lead the bank for a three-year term at a meeting of board members. Sohn, 58, has [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Woori Bank, South Korea’s fourth-biggest lender by assets, said Sunday it is considering adopting a “one-strike” policy to prevent corruption. The bank came up with 100 things to be overhauled or improved after discussions with 100 representing employees on Tuesday and Wednesday, Woori Bank said in a statement. Among [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Local banks are on alert as the government tightens the screw on mortgage loans that has contributed to their profits, financial industry insiders said Monday. The Moon Jae-in administration took a series of steps since taking office in May to tame real estate speculation. It placed nearly all major [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – The government will decide soon whether to sell its remaining stake in Woori Bank, the nation’s top financial regulator said Monday. As part of a plan to privatize Woori Bank, the government sold a 28 percent stake to seven institutional investors last year but still holds an 18 percent [...]
SEJONG, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s financial services industry recorded 9.2 percent in output growth last year largely driven by interest revenues from growing household loans, government data showed on Sunday. According to Statistics Korea, the year-on-year production growth of financial institutions in 2016 was more than triple the 3 percent reported for the overall services industry. By institution, banks gained 9 percent, the highest since 11.8 percent in 2008. Nonbank [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) – CoCo bonds, or contingent convertible bonds, are fixed-income instruments that are equity-convertible in cases of pre-specified trigger events. Despite their liability-like properties, they are classified as assets, which is prompting many banks to issue CoCo bonds as means of expanding capital. So technically, they’re asset-convertible debt. Major Korean banks, [...]
SEOUL, Feb.16 (Korea Bizwire) – Woori Bank announced the launch of its ‘WiBee Quick Global Wiring’ service, which links with the WiBee Talk platform and provides benefits related to exchange rates and commissions. Through WiBee Quick Global Wiring, clients can wire money directly to a foreign branch of Woori Bank without going through an intermediary [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) has expressed its interest in buying a stake in state-run Woori Bank, which has been put up for sale, a government official said Friday. The Seoul government has been trying to sell its 51.04 percent stake in the bank since 2010 in a [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea announced a fresh plan Tuesday to sell state-run Woori Bank following four previous failures to put the country’s third-largest lender into private hands, a state committee said. The government has been trying to sell its 51.04 percent stake in the bank since 2010 in a bid to [...]
SEOUL, June 11 (Korea Bizwire) – With financial regulators’ nod to the Chinese Anbang Insurance Group’ acquisition of Tongyang Life Insurance, Korean financial firms now have to compete with a Chinese player on their home turf. On June 10, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that it had granted approval to Anbang Insurance for the acquisition [...]