South Korean banks' nonperforming loans ratio fell below one percent for the first time in 10 years, due to corporate restructuring and stricter lending rules, the financial regulator said Sunday. The NPL ratio, which measures the rate at which a bank's loans are not repaid, fell to 0.96 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2018, the lowest level since it hit 0.82 percent at the end of September, 2008, the Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement.  "Conglomerates (partic

On the Bar is a regular column written by attorneys at Yoon & Yang LLC on various laws and regulations that affect running a business in Korea. The content provided here is general legal information. -- Ed.The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, often shortened to the Anti-Graft Act, was enacted March 27, 2015, and went into effect Sept. 28, 2016.The enactment of the Anti-Graft Act brought about numerous changes in South Korean society. In a survey conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil

South Korea has asked Turkey to provide compensation for the European nation's provisional safeguard measures on polyethylene terephthalate imports, Seoul's trade ministry said Saturday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that it met with its Turkish counterpart in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday and discussed compensation plans regarding the bilateral safeguard measures on PET products. Bilateral safeguard measures linked to a free trade agreement between the two sides allow temporary

Korea's exports rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier in November fueled by robust sales of memory chips and petrochemical products, government data showed Saturday.Outbound shipments reached $51.92 billion last month, marking the seventh consecutive month for the amount to exceed $50 billion, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.Imports advanced 11.4 percent on-year to $46.78 billion in the one month period, with the trade surplus hitting $5.14 billion, th

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday introduced his people-centered economic policy before global leaders as a potent remedy to income polarization, jobless growth and various other challenges facing many countries. Moon made a keynote speech at the first session of the Group of 20 summit held in Argentina's capital under the theme of global economy, future of work and empowering women. "South Korea realized rapid growth that amazed the world but it shares the same problems with the

South Korea's first key interest rate hike in a year is expected to cool down the overheated housing market by driving down leveraged real estate investments, experts said Friday.The Bank of Korea (BOK) raised the benchmark overnight interbank lending rate by a quarter point to 1.75 percent. In November 2017, the rate was marked up to 1.5 percent from an all-time low of 1.25 percent.Analysts and real estate experts said the latest move will help curb snowballing household debts and keep real est

While most South Koreans wish to become public servants, in reality they strive to land jobs in the corporate world, a survey showed Friday.According to a Saramin HR, South Korea’s online job recruiting matching platform that surveyed 1,143 adults on job preferences, 66.6 percent of 404 job seekers answered that their desired job and their actual target did not match.  To a question asking which jobs they desired the most, irrelevant to how realistic it was, 26.7 percent said working

Rival parties on Friday wrangled over the schedule for a plenary session to handle the government's 2019 budget proposal, two days ahead of the legal deadline for its parliamentary passage.Dec. 2 is the deadline to deal with the government's record 470.5 trillion won ($420.1 billion) budget bill, but a parliamentary special committee on the budget has yet to complete its review amid partisan squabbling. A plenary session for the bill was originally scheduled for Friday, which is also the deadlin

South Korea’s central bank raised the nation’s benchmark interest rate Friday to 1.75 percent, amid growing household debt and further rate hike signals from the United States.The Bank of Korea held its last Monetary Policy Board meeting for this year, in which it decided to raise the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 percent, officials said.The rate had been frozen at 1.5 percent since November last year, when the BOK made its first hike in more than six years from a reco

BUENOS AIRES -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday vowed to improve his country's ties with Argentina and increase support for South Korean residents and businesses in the South American nation.In a meeting with some 200 South Korean residents and business leaders in Buenos Aires, Moon said his government will also support the education of second and third generation Koreans in Argentina. "Also, we will further develop the relationship between South Korea and Argentina so you wi

South Korean mutual financing companies saw their earnings spike more than 47 percent in the first nine months of the year thanks to increased interest income, the financial regulator said Friday.The combined net profit of mutual financing firms came to 2.9 trillion won ($2.6 billion) during the January-September period, up 47.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The stellar bottom line was attributed mainly to a jump in interest income. Their total inte

South Korea's economy is expected to lose steam slightly in 2019 from this year due to weakening exports and sluggish investment, a local think tank said Thursday.In its 2019 economic outlook, the Korea Capital Market Institute forecast South Korea's economic growth to slow to 2.6 percent next year from an estimate of 2.7 percent for this year. The South Korean economy, Asia's fourth-largest, is projected to lose further ground and expand at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in 2020."After peak

South Korea's chief economic policymaker has stressed that reduced geopolitical risks and the country's improved economic conditions call for a rating upgrade, the finance ministry said Thursday.In a meeting with Fitch Ratings President Ian Linnell in London on Wednesday, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said the Seoul government will beef up the country's fiscal soundness, according to the finance ministry. Kim also stressed that the country's expansionary fiscal spending is aimed at creating mor

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