SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean lender Woori Bank said Tuesday it has launched a mobile-only bank service ahead of establishing an Internet-only bank. Woori Bank’s “WiBee Bank” will serve as a test bed for simplified services that will later be part of its envisioned Internet-only bank unit, the lender said in a press [...]
SEOUL, May 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean banks are decreasing the number of their ATMs around the nation to compensate for losses they have been facing due to a recent drop in net interest margins. According to industry representatives on May 17, the number of ATMs at 6 major Korean banks, KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean lenders and technology firms are quickly uniting in their latest efforts to jump on the FinTech bandwagon as the once-high boundary between the two industries is blurring with the rise of mobile banking, market watchers said Tuesday. Woori Bank, the flagship unit of state-run financial group Woori [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – The total exposure of Korean financial institutions to Russia is estimated at US$1.36 billion. According to the Financial Supervisory Service on December 17, the exposure as of the end of September this year including loans and credit facilities provided to Russia by the nation’s 11 banks including Korea EximBank, Korea Development Bank, [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – As KakaoTalk starts its Bank Wallet Kakao service from November 11, Korean banks are rushing to offer bank account products exclusively for the service. For the so-called “Katok Bank” service, Korean commercial banks including Woori Bank, Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank(KEB) rolled out the accounts exclusively for the service to [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Korea Biwire) — A total of 12 domestic and international banks including Shinhan Bank and Bank of Communications have been selected as “market makers” for won-yuan direct transactions. The Bank of Korea said on November 3 that it designated 12 banks as market makers as part of a policy measure to encourage transactions between the [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Woori Bank has issued yuan-denominated bonds for the first time among Korean commercial banks. The bank said on October 10 that it issued two-year bonds in the yuan currency worth 200 million yuan (US$32.7 million). Of the “Kimchi bonds,” or non-won-denominated bonds issued in the Korean market, this is the first [...]
SEOUL, Sep. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Commercial banks are offering increasingly lower loan rates to take corporate customers away from rivals, resulting in the state of “negative spread.” According to a survey, as much as 44 percent of large-scale corporate loans has been provided with negative spread, with the volume estimated to have reached 180 billion [...]
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) – From now on, there is no need to look for a bank passbook buried deep inside the drawer to take money out of the bank. A new mobile bank passbook will replace the cumbersome paper-based passbook. Woori Bank said on July 30 that it would launch the “Woori Mobile Passbook” in [...]
SEOUL, July 14 (Korea Bizwire) — “Alert Apps” of banks have become popular among smartphone users. The apps allow users to receive text message alerts whenever they make banking transactions. In addition, the apps can prevent banking fraud such as smishing. For example, the subscriber number of “One Touch Alert” provided by Woori Bank has recently [...]