Toss Securities, an online brokerage firm owned by fintech firm Viva Republica, said Friday that the number of stock trading accounts on its platform has surpassed 3 million. The 3 million accounts amount to around 30 percent of 9.14 million individual investors in the nation. Launched on Feb. 3, the company attracted new customers by running a series of promotional events. More than 1.7 million new customers joined the Toss platform during a five-day event in February that handed each new c

South Korea plans to impose a 20 percent income tax on capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions starting next year as planned, the government announced Friday, despite growing investor calls for delaying the taxation plan. The government announced the plan after discussing the matter during a vice-ministerial interagency meeting chaired by Koo Yoon-cheol, head of the government policy coordination under the Prime Minister's Office. Gains from cryptocurrency transactions will be classifie

South Korean stocks increased Friday on hopes for a quick economic rebound, taking a cue from improved US economic data. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 23.22 points, or 0.73 percent, to close at 3,188.73 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 954 million shares worth some 13.4 trillion won (US$12 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 596 to 262. Foreigners bought a net 139 billion won, while retail investors s

South Korea plans to take into account tax revenue situations and demand for increasing public finances before it decides on whether to draw up another extra budget in the latter half of 2021, a senior government official said Friday. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon also said the government will focus its economic policy on underpinning an accelerating economic recovery in the second half. Talk of another extra budget emerged from the ruling party after President Moon Jae-in said Thur

The Korea Development Institute, a state-funded think tank, has appointed the architect behind President Moon Jae-in’s income-led growth policy as its new head. Hong Jang-pyo was the chief secretary for economic affairs and led the presidential committee on income-led growth in 2018. He was said to have orchestrated policy drafts that were later blamed by Moon’s critics for failing to narrow economic disparities to which they were intended for. Hong’s three-year term will st

South Korean banks' lending rates edged down in April amid a slight decline in deposit rates, central bank data showed Friday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.74 percent in April, down 0.03 percentage point from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK cut the key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in May last year after delivering an emergency rate cut of half a percentage point in March to cushion the impa

South Korean institutions' investment in foreign securities fell 1.7 percent in the first quarter as they reduced their holdings of foreign sovereign bonds, central bank data showed Friday. The combined value of foreign securities held by institutional investors came to $363 billion as of end-March, down $6.1 billion from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). Foreign securities include stocks, bonds and so-called Korean paper, which refers to foreign currency-denominated

South Korea plans to extend a cut in the consumption tax on passenger cars by another six months in a bid to boost domestic demand hit by the pandemic, the finance minister said Friday. A 30 percent cut in the consumption tax on the purchase of passenger cars is supposed to expire at the end of June, but the country will extend it until the end of this year, according to Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. In July 2018, the government slashed the auto consumption tax to 3.5 percent from 5 percent an

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, tracking overnight Wall Street gains that stemmed from strong US economic data and upcoming federal spending plans. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 18.56 points, or 0.59 percent, to reach 3,184.07 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Industrial Average gained 0.41 percent, as jobless data declined to a fresh pandemic low, and the S&P 500 edged up 0.12 percent. The world's largest economy will soon reveal

South Korean private equity firm Hahn & Co. is poised to buy a controlling  52.6 percent stake in Namyang Dairy Products which has been under public criticism for claiming that its yogurt drink helps prevent COVID-19, a filing showed Thursday. Namyang Dairy’s board has agreed to sell 378,938 common shares, owned by ex-chairman Hong Won-sik, his wife and his grandson, to the country’s second-largest private equity firm for 310.7 billion won ($278.2 million), according to th

South Korean stocks closed a tad lower Thursday, as investors wait for key economic data from the United States later this week, which is widely seen as a gauge for a potential rate hike. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 2.92 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 3,165.51 points. Trading volume was high at about 1.1 billion shares worth some 19.9 trillion won ($17.8 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 496 to 360. Fo

An upward trend for apartment prices in Seoul has continued for 40 weeks in a row, since last June, according to the state-run Korean Real Estate Board on Thursday. Market experts say unstoppable apartment price increases in Gangnam have driven the growth, inflating home prices in other regions in and around Seoul. The rate of increase stayed between 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent during most of the second half last year, and this year it increased from 0.06 percent in the first week of January

BOK takes cautious, yet more hawkish stance toward rate hike by the end of the year

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Leveraged cryptocurrency trading by individuals in South Korea threatens the nation’s financial system, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said Thursday. Given the price volatility of virtual assets, increased trading in such assets leaves Korea’s financial system subject to instability, Lee said in a press conference after a monetary policy committee meeting. “An excessive level of leveraged cryptocurrency trading puts households at risk of financial damages considering the in