Global credit appraiser Standard & Poor’s will hold its annual meeting with South Korean policymakers this week to assess the country’s economy and its credit status, the Finance Ministry said Monday.A delegation led by Kim Eng Tan, head of S&P’s Sovereign Ratings Asia Pacific, will be in Korea for the three-day meeting that will begin Tuesday, ministry officials said. The team will meet with top policymakers including those from the finance ministry, the Financial Services Commission and the Ba

Watchdog’s credibility put on line for issuing empty threats against KB

 The South Korean financial watchdog on Friday reprimanded the heads of KB Financial Group Inc. and its flagship Kookmin Bank for management failures, concluding an investigation that dragged on for two months with a much lighter punishment than earlier indicated. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said its disciplinary committee gave warnings to KB Financial Chairman Lim Young-rok and Kookmin Bank President Lee Kun-ho, declining to impose heavy penalties that could have forced them to resi

Korean asset managers saw their net profit soar 51.8 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier due to a rise in returns from stock investment, the financial watchdog said Thursday.A total of 86 asset management companies posted a combined 212 billion won ($207.5 million) in net profit in the January-June period, compared with 139.7 billion won in the same period last year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.The top 10 asset managers accounted for 67 percent of the tot

South Korea’s card spending stood at around 50 trillion won ($48 billion) last month, up by 2.4 trillion won ― or 5.1 percent ― from the same period last year, according to the Credit Finance Association of Korea on Thursday. Though the spending rose, the on-year growth rate was still below the 7.2 percent recorded in July last year. The association said this was due to the nation’s prolonged economic downturn. “In recent months, consumers’ disposable income dropped because of rising apartment r

Economic experts appeared to be optimistic about the government’s latest policy initiatives, according to a survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries earlier this month.More than half of the 37 experts surveyed by the FKI said that they supported the economic direction taken by Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan. The respondents included the chiefs of state-run or leading private economic institutes, university professors and financial analysts. Another 75.7 percent of the experts pr

South Korean stocks closed nearly unchanged Wednesday as investors shunned risky assets ahead of the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s July meeting, analysts said. The local currency sharply declined against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 1.64 points, or 0.08 percent, to close at 2,072.78. Trading volume was moderate at 310.3 million shares worth 4.49 trillion won ($4.41 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 457 to 354.“Investors t

South Korea’s short-term foreign debt rose for the third straight quarter in the April-June period as banks increased their overseas borrowing, central bank data showed Wednesday.The country’s short-term external debt totaled $131.8 billion as of end-June, up $8 billion from three months earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.By volume, the end-June figure marks the highest level since September 2012 when short-term foreign debt reached $135.1 billion.Korea’s total ext

The heads of Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) agreed in a joint statement on Tuesday to speed up the merger of the two local lenders, which has faced stiff opposition from KEB's union. Hana Bank President Kim Jong-jun and KEB President Kim Han-jo signed a joint statement announcing the official beginning of the integration process to "end confusion and strengthen competitiveness," according to an emailed press release.The move is the latest in efforts by the two banks' management to drum