The policymaking Financial Services Commission said Wednesday that Citibank Korea’s plans to gradually phase out its consumer banking operations are not subject to the regulator’s authorization.  “According to the current banking act, Citibank Korea‘s withdrawal of retail business in phases is not regarded as a ‘shutdown of banking business,’ which falls under the FSC‘s approval,” the authority said in a statement, which indicates the forei

Scary holiday weekend falls on eve of grand return to normal

Ulsan Museum of Art will open early next year as the first major art museum in the eighth-largest city in South Korea. The museum will specialize in digital media art, encompassing the fast-evolving digital art genre. The museum, which is now in the final stage of construction, will open on Jan. 6 with five inaugural exhibitions. They include an exhibition of the museum’s permanent collection and the thematic exhibition “Post Nature.” Seventy artists from 14 countries will b

The fifth UNESCO International Conference on Learning Cities, hosted by Incheon’s Yeonsu-gu, began its four-day run Wednesday. The international event is being held at Songdo Convensia in Yeonsu-gu under the theme of “From emergency to resilience: Building healthy and resilient cities through learning.” The conference comes at a critical juncture with an aim of discussing global health education in cities, their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and actions to improve res

Patrick Lee, executive director of Gallery Hyundai in Seoul, will step down from his post and direct the art fair Frieze Seoul starting in November, according to the gallery. Frieze Seoul will be held in early September 2022 at Coex in southern Seoul, alongside KIAF Seoul, South Korea’s largest international art fair. As director of Frieze Seoul, Lee will take charge of organizing the event. Seoul is the first Asian city to host a Frieze art fair. Lee, who previously led One and J. Ga

SSG.com, the e-commerce arm of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, said Wednesday it has selected managers for its initial public offering with a goal to make a market debut in 2022. According to the officials, the company chose Mirae Asset Securities and Citigroup Global Markets Korea Securities as the lead underwriters of its IPO deal, with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. also joining as members of the underwriter group. The exact size of the deal and the date of listing

South Korean President Moon Jae-in stressed the importance of regional cooperation to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future, as he attended a video summit with leaders of China, Japan and the Southeast Asian nations.  Moon said health cooperation was “urgent” to overcome the pandemic, in his opening remarks at the annual ASEAN Plus Three Summit, which involves the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with China, Japan and Korea.  Other p

Starbucks Korea will provide free barista training to as many as 200 young job seekers next year, as part of a government project to tackle youth joblessness. The coffee chain inked a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Employment and Labor on Wednesday to participate in the ministry’s “Youth Employment Support Project.”  The project aims to promote companies to provide work experiences and various job training programs for young job seekers. Starbucks is

Never trust a skinny chef. The sentiment behind this tongue-in-cheek reference to a chef’s inability to resist his own delicious food applies to most professions, including game developers. Nexon’s Blue Archive, an anime-style role-playing game, immediately stole the hearts of anime fans after its February release in Japan, even ranking as the most popular game on both Google Play and App Store. Perhaps the game’s success was a predestined one, considering it was developed b

Capturing the true essence of a person in pictures, portrait photography is one of the most difficult areas of photography. Long before photography arrived in the Joseon Kingdom (1393-1910), portrait artists were challenged to draw detailed portraits that included a view into the inner spiritual world of the subject. The official portraits of Yi Seong-gye, the founder of the Joseon Kingdom, tell volumes about the gifted military man who became the last ruler of the Goryeo Empire in 1392, befor

We are honored to receive the 2021 Korea Herald Advertising Awards with our “Appropriate Digital Asset Investment Campaign” by the Upbit Investor Protection Center. The Appropriate Digital Asset Investment Campaign is very meaningful in that it is the first official activity of the tentatively named, upcoming Upbit Investor Protection Center and the industry’s first mass campaign efforts to enhance self-purification. As a leader in the digital asset market, Dunamu has put va

Kolmar Korea, a cosmetics and health care company based in Seoul, has made a strategic investment in a beauty platform operator in a bid to target Millennial and Generation Z consumers in the local beauty market. According to its announcement on Wednesday, the company purchased an 11 percent stake in Pawcompany. Established in 2003, Pawcompany operates online beauty community Powder Room. The platform currently has 3.7 million members and has held marketing projects with 5,400 beauty firms t