The Korea Exchange said it would introduce two new safety measures to revert mistaken deals in the derivative market in hopes of encouraging potential traders and boosting exchange.Under the first measure, the state-run stock operator will reject orders placed at prices excessively higher or lower than average contract orders starting in September, officials said Thursday. The specific percentage range will depend on the nature of the deals. The new regulation will be applied to KOSPI 200 future

South Korea plans to issue state bonds worth about 6.7 trillion won ($6.6 billion) in September, the finance ministry said Thursday.According to the ministry, the government is seeking to sell 1.75 trillion won in three-year Treasurys, 1.6 trillion won in five-year debts and 1.85 trillion won worth of 10-year bonds next month.It also plans to issue 750 billion won worth of bonds that mature in 20 years and 750 billion won in 30-year bonds.The total to be issued is 100 billion less than Treasurys

The South Korean financial watchdog said Thursday it has cautioned troubled Kookmin Bank against a lack of supervision of its employees, which has led to corruption such as massive embezzlement and illegal loans.The Financial Supervisory Service also reprimanded 68 Kookmin Bank officials involved in the scandals. One of the officials was reprimanded in two separate cases.After conducting thorough inspections on the two different cases, the watchdog concluded that 51 employees had pocketed a comb

Kookmin Bank took the protracted feud over a computation system change to the prosecution, deepening the chasm between the bank and its parent financial group who both have been reprimanded by the watchdog for management fumbles.Kookmin Bank filed a complaint with the prosecution on Tuesday against three executives, including Kim Jae-youl, chief information officer of KB Financial Group Inc., accusing the officials of having underestimated the potential risks of the system change and not promptl

Regulator to ease bank sanctions to encourage riskier start-up loans

The Financial Supervisory Service is hosting a regular meeting for the Supervision and Implementation Group, a subcommittee of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.The two-day SIG meeting kicked off Tuesday at Westin Chosun Seoul, FSS officials said.The list of participants includes financial supervisory officials from key BCBS member states including the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Japan, as well as senior banking officials from the International Monetary Fund.The core task is to review t

South Korea’s household credit hit a fresh high in the second quarter, with its growth picking up from three months earlier on a sharp rise in mortgage lending, central bank data showed Tuesday.Household credit totaled 1.04 quadrillion won ($1.02 trillion) as of end-June, up 15.1 trillion won from the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea. The second-quarter gain is about four times that of the 3.5 trillion won gain logged in the January-March period.Household credit refers to credit

South Korea’s leading banking groups are reorganizing their business portfolios to seek new profit sources in response to the prolonged low interest rate trend that has resulted in narrower loan-deposit margins, market watchers said Tuesday. KB Financial Group Inc. expanded its business portfolio by acquiring LIG Insurance Co., the country’s No. 5 nonlife insurer.KB signed a deal to purchase a 19.47 percent stake in the insurer for 685 billion won ($670 million) in late June. The deal is expecte

Tens of thousands of unionized South Korean financial workers on Tuesday voted to go on strike next month to protest what they called government interference in the local finance sector.About 100,000 union members from 37 financial companies took part in the vote, with 91 percent of them endorsing the strike scheduled for Sept. 3, their umbrella union Korea Financial Industry Union said in a news release.Ahead of the planned strike, union members plan to hold a protest rally at Yeouido, the coun

South Korea's top financial regulator said Tuesday it will pull back almost entirely from punishing individuals at financial institutions for missteps, in a move to encourage them to make riskier but potentially lucrative loans to start-ups.The Financial Services Commission said it will cut down on punitive measures against individuals by as much as 90 percent and instead leave disciplinary decisions to companies. It said it will continue to monitor and reprimand institutions for wrongdoing."Exc

South Korea has executed nearly 64 percent of its annual fiscal spending budget so far this year, better than its target, the finance ministry said Monday.According to the ministry, the government had carried out 191.1 trillion won ($187.5 billion) worth of fiscal spending projects as of July, or 63.8 percent of its planned spending. The ratio is higher than its target of 63.2 percent. “We have achieved the target thanks to aggressive efforts by the government and state-run organizations,” the m