More than 70 percent of firms listed on the South Korean equity market disclosed their consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year 2015, a government tally showed Wednesday.Among the 1,846 listed companies, 1,327, or 71.9 percent, made public their CFSs, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.The number jumped by 73 from a year earlier but the ratio dropped 1.9 percentage points due to an increase in the number of listed firms.The number of subsidiaries owned by the listed comp

The number of South Koreans aged 100 and older soared to top 3,000 last year as the country is rapidly heading to an aged society, government data showed Monday.A total of 3,159 centenarians were living in the country whose total population amounts to 50.62 million as of November 2015. The number is up from 1,835 tallied five years earlier, according to the census data compiled by Statistics Korea. Among the centenarians, 2,731, or 86.5 percent, are female.　Their secret to living a long life is

Newly introduced credit cards jointly issued by Standard Chartered Bank Korea and Samsung Card are putting a smile on the faces of users and companies.It is the first time in the finance sector that a bank and a credit card company has collaborated. The two financial firms in February inked a deal to launch credit cards that provide a wide range of benefits. Models promote the new credit card jointly issued by SC Bank Korea and Samsung Card. (SC Bank Korea)The most notable advantage is the 360 R

The National Pension Service has lent out some 700 billion won ($617 million) worth of its shares to other parties, a lawmaker revealed Tuesday. NPS is South Korea’s largest investor, with 90 trillion won worth of local stocks. According to Rep. Park Yong-jin of the liberal opposition Minjoo Party, the pension fund’s stock loaning has risen steadily from an average balance of 425 billion won in 2013 to 697.9 billion in 2015. As of June 30, the balance has risen to 718 billion won, with shares in

[THE INVESTOR] More companies raised cash through secondary offerings during the first half of this year than a year earlier, industry data showed on July 26. According to the Korea Securities Depository, 161 companies raised more than 5.48 trillion won (US$4.83 billion) during the first six months of the year. Compared to the same period last year, the number of companies taking such action increased 34.2 percent, while the amount raised saw a 16.1 percent increase. The number of new shares, ho

[THE INVESTOR] Anthemis Group, one of UK’s leading fintech investment firm, has joined hands with Hanwha Life to operate a US$10 million (11.3 billion won) fund. Anthemis was founded in 2010. Its main area of expertise is investing in financial services companies, mainly those in retail banking and consumer finance, data technology and infrastructure, and wealth and asset management. Hanwha Life headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.Hanwha currently manages up to 100 trillion won (US$ 87.88 billion) of

South Korea's credit card spending soared nearly 14 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier when the nation's economy was hit by the spread of the MERS viral respiratory disease, statistics showed Tuesday.Credit card purchases totaled 178.4 trillion won ($156 billion) during the April-June period, a 13.8 percent on-year rise, according to the data from the Credit Finance Association.The upswing is largely due to a base effect. South Koreans slashed their consumption in the second quart

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix Inc. on Tuesday reported its lowest quarterly profit in 13 quarters as falling demand for smartphones and computers hit chip prices. SK hynix posted a net profit of 286.1 billion won ($250.4 million) in the April-June period, down 74.2 percent from the same period last year. Second-quarter operating profit dipped 67.1 percent on year to 452.8 billion won. Sales fell 15 percent to 3.9 trillion won. Compared with the previous quarter, sales rose 7.8 percent as shipm

Chinese companies will shake dynamics of local insurance market, study says