The Financial Supervisory Service and Hana Bank chief Kim Jong-jun appeared to be in a rare tug-of-war over whether the latter should leave his post over a scandal involving his past misdemeanors. On Tuesday, industry sources said that the FSS had threatened to air Kim’s dirty laundry ― his involvement in an ill-advised loan granted by Hana Capital to an ailing savings bank ― to facilitate an ouster.The FSS has already issued a heavy penalty on Kim banning him from working at financial instituti

Investors are increasingly managing their money on a short-term basis on a lack of investment destinations that promise decent returns amid a bearish run on the local stock market and housing prices, data showed Tuesday.The country’s short-term funds, including currency in circulation, all financial products with a maturity of less than six months and money parked for stock investment, amounted to a record 715.9 trillion won ($689.2 billion) as of April 15.The figure reflects a 10 trillion won i

State-run bank says loan was granted based on accurate calculations and loan guidelines

Dividend payouts by South Korean listed firms to investors remained poor last year, with their dividend yield ratio hitting the lowest level in 3 years, data showed Monday.The average dividend yield ratio of listed firms that closed their books on Dec. 31 came to 1.14 percent in 2013, marking the lowest tally since 2010, when the comparable figure was 1.12 percent, according to data compiled by Daishin Securities.The dividend yield ratio refers to a company’s annual dividend payments per share d

South Korea’s savings banks aim to nearly halve the ratio of their bad loans to their total lending by 2016 as a reactionary measure to massive bankruptcies just a few years ago, the financial watchdog said Monday.The Financial Supervisory Service had ordered 88 local savings banks in February to submit plans on how they would lower the bad loan ratios over the three years starting this year in order to improve the financial health of the secondary lenders.The average bad loan ratio of the savin

Foreign investment in South Korea rose 3.8 percent last year, led by U.S. and European investors who mostly increased their purchase of local stocks and bonds, the central bank said Monday. Outstanding foreign investment in Asia’s fourth-largest economy amounted to a record $991 billion as of the end of 2013, compared with $954.7 billion the previous year, according to data by the Bank of Korea.The data covered foreigners’ direct investment, portfolios and other types of investment.Foreigners’ d

South Korean stocks are expected to be bullish this week on hopes of improved first-quarter corporate earnings, analysts said Saturday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index finished at 2,004.28 on Friday, up 0.34 percent, or 6.84 points, from a week earlier. The KOSPI broke the 2,000-mark for the first time in five sessions since April 10 when it hit 2,008.61.The bullish market stemmed from optimistic forecasts for the first-quarter earnings results slated to be out from this week. An

The financial regulator said Friday that Shinhan Bank employees had engaged in unauthorized access to customers’ accounts about 100 times.“Some bank employees were found to have inquired into accounts of individual customers including their families, which is a breach of banking regulatory rules,” said an official of the Financial Supervisory Service.He said there were more than 100 instances of irregular access at Shinhan Bank, adding that rule-violators would be subject to sanctions.The miscon

The South Korean currency is undervalued in the range of 2 percent to 8 percent, theInternational Monetary Fund said in its latest report, encouraging further appreciation of the won over the medium term.The IMF report dated Thursday said the won remained moderately undervalued by as much as 8 percent, with the upper end of the range seeming more plausible given the current account surplus run."Staff analysis, based on estimates of the rise in reserves unexplained by interest income and spikes i