South Korea's credit card spending grew at a slower pace in February than a month earlier due to a one-time effect, data showed on Tuesday.Purchases made with credit cards reached 41.48 trillion won ($38.52 billion) in February, growing 2.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Credit Finance Association. The February figure is compared with 46.9 trillion won worth of credit card spending a month earlier and also marks a slowdown from a 9-percent on-year gain in Janu

State prosecutors sought an arrest warrant Tuesday for the head of a local mine developer on charges of reaping massive profits from a stock price manipulation scheme linked to a diamond mining project in Cameroon.CNK International President Oh Deok-gyun allegedly pocketed about 90 billion won ($83.24 million) by exaggerating the volume of diamond reserves in a Cameroon mine through a press release that inflated the KOSDAQ-listed company's stock prices.Oh was apprehended at Incheon International

The average liabilities held by South Korea’s heavy debtors edged up on-year in 2013, data showed Sunday, casting further clouds over the country’s economy amid mounting household debts.South Koreans who have borrowed money from more than three financial firms saw their average debt reach 96.2 million ($89,000) at end-2013, gradually expanding every year since the 88.3 million won posted in 2010, data compiled by the Bank of Korea showed.Despite the number of such heavy debtors falling 30,000 to

South Korea’s bourse operator, the Korea Exchange, said Friday that it will launch a gold trading platform early next week as scheduled, after a three-week trial period.Last year, the country’s financial authorities unveiled a plan to set up a gold trading platform in line with the government’s efforts to bring the underground economy into the open and squeeze taxes out of the market, where tax evasion is rampant and dominated by illegal transactions.According to the exchange, 1 gram units of bu

Lotte Group successfully recruited a group of former government officials, many of whom worked for the nation’s major investigative agencies, as outside directors through a vote at the annual shareholders meeting on Friday.Most of the appointees included officials from the prosecution, the tax authority and the presidential office. Shareholders of Lotte affiliates approved the proposition.Lotte Shopping named a former commissioner of a regional tax office and renamed a former senior prosecutor a

South Korea's bourse operator, the Korea Exchange, said Friday that it will launch a gold trading platform early next week as scheduled, after a three-week trial period.Last year, the country's financial authorities unveiled a plan to set up a gold trading platform in line with the government's efforts to bring the underground economy into the open and squeeze taxes out of the market where tax evasion is rampant and dominated by illegal transactions.According to the exchange, 1 gram units of bul

South Korean stocks fell sharply Thursday following U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s comments on future interest rate hikes that pushed foreign investors and institutions to offload shares. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index skidded with the start of trading and lost more ground to end the day at 1,919.52, a drop of 0.94 percent, or 18.16 points, from Wednesday’s close.The loss comes on the heels of the main bourse dipping in

Two former employees of Kookmin Bank’s unit in Tokyo have been indicted on charges of extending illegal loans worth nearly 150 billion won ($140 million) to South Korean companies operating in Japan, prosecutors said Thursday.The Tokyo branch of South Korea’s leading bank has been investigated by Seoul prosecutors over suspicions that it lent more than permitted to Japan-based firms to secure returns, some of which were later used to amass slush funds here.The suspects, including a 56-year-old f