The delinquency rate on loans extended by South Korean banks, including household borrowing, rose for a second consecutive month in February amid concerns that snowballing household debts in the country could pose a threat to much-hoped economic expansion, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.The average bad loan rate for banks stood at 0.77 percent at the end of February, up 0.06 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.It dropped to a five-year low o

The government said Monday that it would accelerate the launch of the country’s biggest tech cluster in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, to develop the area into a Korean version of Silicon Valley. Government ministries agreed to lift the greenbelt development restrictions on the area by the end of this year, six months ahead of the initial schedule. To meet the December deadline, the ministries are pushing to submit the master development plan for the Pangyo Creative Economy Valley and file for state

The National Tax Service has lost over 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in tax litigations with corporates over the past four years, according to a report.Rep. Park Myung-jae, a member of the ruling Saenuri Party and of the parliamentary committee of strategy and finance, said in a report on Monday that the tax office lost 32.7 percent of the litigations over the past four years, giving away 2.1 trillion won.“Over 1.7 trillion won or 80.3 percent of the total amount was lost in suits involving 5 bi

Gov. Lee marks first year in office

The government will allow nine large local brokerage houses to expand the scope of their foreign currency businesses starting this week to reinvigorate the local financial sector, the finance ministry said Monday. Nine securities companies with net worth of more than 1 trillion won ($904 million), such as Samsung, Woori and KDB Daewoo, will be able to extend foreign exchange loans starting Tuesday, the ministry said. They also will be allowed to borrow money from abroad more easily than before a

South Korea's top financial regulator vowed Monday to focus more on supporting the financially needy by strengthening local microfinancing services as it kicked off a second round of the state-led debt relief program for mortgage borrowers.The pledge came one day after the Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced a plan to provide an additional 20 trillion won ($18 billion) to help borrowers convert their short-term floating-rate loans into long-term, fixed-rate ones. The first batch of fun

The default rate of corporate bills in South Korea improved to its lowest level in 20 months in February as the amount of default corporate bills at cash-squeezed conglomerate Tong Yang declined, data showed Monday.The corporate bill default rate reached 0.08 percent last month, hitting the lowest level since 0.08 percent in June 2013 when the figure dipped on a fall in default corporate bills at logistics-focused conglomerate STX, according to the data by the Bank of Korea.The February reading

Bank lending rates for new loans in South Korea fell for a second straight month in February moving in tandem with a record-low policy rate, central bank data showed Monday.The average rate for new loans to households, companies and other organizations came in at 3.86 percent last month, falling 0.04 percentage point from the previous month, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea.The February reading marks a second consecutive month of decline following a brief 0.03 percentage po

South Korea banks and other financial companies have hired former government officials to fill some 30 percent of outside director positions, industry data showed Monday, amid criticism that outside directors are not living up to their roles.According to the data compiled by CEO Score, the number of outside directors hired by 43 financial companies totaled 197, up 7 from the end of September.Of the newly hired, 53, or 26.9 percent, are former high-ranking government officials who have worked at

South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Inter-American Development Bank kicked off the annual meetings of the Board of Governors of the IDB and the Inter-American Investment Corp. in Busan on Thursday.Some 3,000 government officials and economists from Korea and Latin America will be gathering at the four-day forum to exchange development knowledge, and discuss ways to boost bilateral trade and technology especially through small and medium enterprises and start-ups in the two reg

Direct financing by South Korean companies rose in February from a month earlier due to a jump in corporate bond sales, the financial watchdog said Thursday.Local companies raised a combined 8.1 trillion won ($7.3 billion) last month by selling stocks and bonds, up 8.2 percent from 7.5 trillion won a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service .But on-year, corporate financing for the first two months fell 10.4 percent to 15.7 trillion won from 17.5 trillion won a year earlier,