A Financial Supervisory Service employee who allegedly sold off his cryptocurrency coins just before the release of the government’s anti-speculative measures was found to have been a member of the task force preparing the plans.The Office for Government Policy Coordination and the FSS said Thursday that the official who reportedly sold his coins right before the government’s announcement was an FSS employee dispatched to the Policy Coordination Office to prepare measures aimed to cu

Amid the South Korean government drawing up measures to regulate the recent craze for cryptocurrency, an anonymous post online has sparked heated debate. Last month, an online poster shared his sympathies for a fried chicken restaurant owner and said, “I buy fried chicken with the money I earned through bitcoin trading. It is very easy to earn money if you learn the rules of (cryptocurrency) trading. I feel sorry for the restaurant owner, who keeps his business up and running until the lat

Korea has seen tax revenues surpass government-set targets in recent years amid rising concerns over its long-term fiscal soundness.According to recent data from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, national tax revenue amounted to 251.9 trillion won ($236.5 billion) in the first 11 months of 2017, exceeding the yearly revenue goal of 251.1 trillion won. The ministry estimated taxes collected for the whole of last year would reach 270 trillion won, up from 242.6 trillion won a year earlier.It m

South Korea’s exports to Vietnam have been growing, with the size of the trade surplus for Seoul surpassing that with the United States, data from the Korea International Trade Association showed Thursday.Korea exported $47.7 billion worth of products to Vietnam, accounting for 8.3 percent of the country’s entire outbound shipments. Vietnam is also quickly catching up with the US as a major export destination, with the export value to Vietnam amounting to 69.7 percent of that to the

Best-selling author and blockchain advocate Don Tapscott on Wednesday called for South Korea’s “sensible regulation” on cryptocurrency tokens and initial coin offerings, warning the government could otherwise “destroy economies for decades,” during a press conference in Seoul.Tapscott called bans on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings “heavy-handed approaches used by dictators and undemocratic countries,” and contrasted them with “sensible

The Bank of Korea on Thursday raised its economic growth forecast for this year on expectations of continued domestic demand recovery and robust export growth. The central bank forecast that South Korea's gross domestic product will grow 3 percent in 2018, faster than its previous estimate of 2.9 percent, BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol told reporters. The BOK left its base rate unchanged earlier in the day, saying it "judges that the solid trend of domestic economic growth has continued as exports ha

Sixty percent of those that purchase apartments in the top four Gangnam districts in southern Seoul are residents of the area, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Appraisal Board showed Wednesday.In December alone, a total of 2,339 transactions were carried out in the four districts -- Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Gangdong. Among them, 59.6 percent involved buyers with registered residencies in one of the four districts. Some 18.9 percent were residents of o

South Korea’s second-tier Kosdaq hit a 16-year high, crossing 900 points at Tuesday’s close for the first time since ...

Uncertainty in South Korea concerning cryptocurrency regulations continues, with the finance minister reiterating his vow to curb speculations, while a petition by disgruntled investors awaits an official reply from the presidential office. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon on Tuesday said that the suggestion to close down cryptocurrency exchanges is still an option under consideration, despite anticipated side effects.“(The government) shall come up (with cryptocurr

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the fintech industry. This is the eighth installment. — Ed.Despite the constant wave of technological advances, the remittance method has evolved little in South Korea over the past few decades, with only banks legally allowed to provide remittance services.Now with the growth of the fintech industry, a startup can address problems in interbank remittance and bring more benefits to customers, according to Ian Su

Foreigners have net bought more than 2.2 trillion won ($2 billion) worth of South Korean stocks this year in continuation of their buying spree from 2017, the Korea Exchange said Tuesday, amid strong performance by local firms.Offshore investors acquired listed shares valued at 10.2 trillion won last year on solid earnings buttressed by rising exports. The total net purchase of Korean shares by foreign investors for the first 15 days of this month breaks down to 1.4 trillion won of stocks listed

South Korea will come up with a set of measures to clamp down on the "irrational" investment craze for cryptocurrency here, the country's chief economic policymaker said Tuesday, with a potential shutdown of exchanges still on the table."The government stance is that it needs to regulate cryptocurrency investment as it is a largely speculative investment," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a radio program interview."The shutdown of virtual currency exchanges is stil

Some 147,000 people have been jobless for six months or longer last year, the highest since recordkeeping began in 2000, latest figures from Statistics Korea showed Tuesday.Last year's number marks a 10.5-percent increase from 133,000 tallied in 2016. It accounts for 14.3 percent of the total number of jobless people, also the highest since 14.1 percent reached in 2000.The figure compares to 80,000 in 2009 when the country was reeling from the global financial crisis, and to 138,000 in 2000 duri

BRUSSELS -- European Union officials have proposed removing eight jurisdictions from the blacklist of tax havens the bloc adopted in December, in what critics may see as a blow to its campaign against tax avoidance. EU states decided last month to draw up the list in a bid to discourage the most aggressive tax dodging practices. But eight of the 17 jurisdictions currently listed are set to be quickly removed from the list after they offered to change their tax rules, according to EU documents se

Nearly 2 million South Koreans are estimated to have used cryptocurrency applications with their smartphone in the past week, data showed Monday. A total of 1.96 million people may have used apps that allow them to handle digital currencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum, last week, up from 140,000 tallied between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, according to data from WiseApp, an application analytics company.Cryptocurrencies have rapidly gained popularity in recent weeks among South Korean investors ho