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.In September 2017, in response to a surge in virtual currency transactions in mid-2017, the Financial Services Commission ultimately banned raising money through initial coin offerings for all types of virtual currencies. Subsequently, as the trading volume of virtual currencies in Korea d

The number of wealthy individuals who own at least 51 homes in South Korea marked 1,988 last year, down from 2,680 in 2016, data by Statistics Korea showed.The number of those owning at least 51 houses peaked in 2015 at 2,907 before beginning to decline.The total number of homeowners nationwide had increased 2.7 percent last year from the previous year to 13,669,851. Multiple-home owners as a whole surged 1.5 percent on-year to 2,119,163.But the “superrich” who own more than 40 homes

The Cabinet on Monday approved a plan to lower tariff rates on 79 products next year to bolster South Korea’s industrial competitiveness and stabilize domestic goods prices.The products covered by a tariff quota include crude oil, liquefied natural gas and cobalt sulfate, a key ingredient in making batteries for electric vehicles, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Under the quota tariff, which is set to take effect between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 next year, tariff rates on cobal

Sales of cold weather products increased in South Korea apparently as more people purchased goods to keep themselves warm during various year-end events, industry data showed Monday.According to major online shopping mall Gmarket, the sales of products designed to keep people warm, such as jackets or hotpacks, surged between Dec. 13 and Wednesday compared with a year earlier. Sales of padded outdoor jackets for men and women shot up 113 percent and 79 percent on-year, respectively, during the ci

The average debt of Korean households rose 6.1 percent to 75.31 million won ($66,700) as of March from a year ago, data showed Sunday.According to Statistics Korea, South Korean household assets on average reached 415.73 million won, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier, but the increase in household debt raised concerns over the impact of a possible hike in market rates.Local banks are poised to raise interest rates following the rate hike by the US Federal Reserve to a range of 2.25 to 2.5 perce

Residents of the South Korean capital earned the highest average incomes last year, data showed Friday.According to Statistics Korea, Seoul topped the list of 16 cities and provinces in per capita disposable income for a second consecutive year.Disposable income, also called disposable personal income, is the total earnings a household makes that are available to save or spend after taxes and pension funds have been paid.Residents of Seoul earned 21.43 million won ($19,000) on average

South Korea's producer prices dropped at the fastest clip in more than three years in November on sagging crude oil prices, central bank data showed Friday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 104.67 last month, down 0.7 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.It is the sharpest on-month decline since October 2015, when the index lost 0.7 percent. Also, the producer price index went south for the second consecu

A majority of South Koreans were in support of expanding the generation and use of Solar photovoltaic power, according to a survey recently released by an association that promotes the wider use of solar energy. Earlier this month, the Korea Photovoltaic Industry Association commissioned Korea Research to survey 1,000 adults on their perceptions toward diverse energy sources. The survey showed that 67.9 percent of the respondents believed the proportion of solar energy out of overall energy use

SEJONG -- Global research organizations have revised their growth outlook for the South Korean economy, predicting its GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 would stay under 3 percent. The International Monetary Fund forecasted the Korean economy would expand only 2.8 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year. The Asian Development Bank’s prediction was 2.7 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, which is 0.2 percentage point lower for both years compared to its earlier estimates.The forecasts cont

South Korean households are becoming less able to repay their debts in terms of their income amid a rate hike trend, a central bank report showed Thursday.The debt service ratio of household borrowers reached 38.8 percent in the second quarter, up 0.8 percentage point from six months earlier, according to the biannual report by the Bank of Korea submitted to parliament. The DSR refers to the ratio of a family's total debt payments -- principal and interest -- to its annual income, designed to ch

About 20 percent of South Korea's corporate loans were granted to businesses with shaky balance sheets last year, a central bank report showed Thursday.According to the Bank of Korea biannual report, submitted to parliament, 4,469 companies were not able to properly pay interest, suffered from liquidity problems or had weak equity capital numbers. The fragile firms accounted for 19.6 percent of businesses with total assets of 10 billion won ($8.9 million) or more. They borrowed a combined 150.6

A new smartphone-based payment service, aimed at relieving small business owners of the burden of settlement costs, was launched on a trial basis in Seoul on Thursday.The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it began the trial service of the "Zero Pay" service ahead of its formal launching after March next year. Zero Pay is a mobile direct transaction system in which money is transferred from a consumer account to a merchant account when the consumer scans the merchant's QR code with a s

The head of South Korea’s central bank on Tuesday warned of persisting internal and external risks in Asia’s fourth-largest economy and the lack of a driver for economic growth other than semiconductor businesses within the next five years. In a press conference Tuesday evening, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said Korea has yet to come up with an alternative in the face of the downturn of the semiconductor-making business, mainly led by market giants, such as Samsung Electronics and

The South Korean government on Wednesday announced the second stage of its plans to supply more homes to stabilize the overheated housing market, involving the building of 155,000 homes in areas near Seoul.On top of the 35,000 new homes announced in September, 155,000 dwellings will be created at 41 sites in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province starting in 2020, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation. The sites for 110,000 homes will be released in the first half of

South Korea's trade with Vietnam increased 7 percent in the first 11 months of this year compared with a year ago, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday. The bilateral trade volume reached $62.6 billion as of November, making Vietnam South Korea's fourth-largest trading partner after China, the United States and Japan, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. South Korea's exports to Vietnam rose 1.9 percent on-year to $44.5 billion over the period, while its imports soared 22 perce