The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 16th installment. - Ed.To retail shop owners occupied with day-to-day operations, managing card payments is an integral part of doing business, but at the same time, a time-consuming hassle.Vendors in South Korea, where there are a total of eight card companies in business, also face the same situation, particularly as cards have become the main means of payment.In 2017,

Samsung SDS on Monday launched a financial platform powered by blockchain and artificial intelligence, designed to help the local banking industry to cut cost, minimize security threats and streamline financial procedures, the firm said.Dubbed “Nexfinance,” the new platform features user applications that would automate a customer’s process of tracking and integrating financial records from different financial companies, getting product recommendations, claiming insurance and m

South Korea’s financial markets will shut down on June 13 for a designated holiday for local election, according to the Korea Exchange Monday.  Markets trading equities, derivatives and commodities here will be closed throughout the day, based on the internal regulations by the KRX. Also, settlement or liquidation of stocks, derivatives and interest rate swaps in Korean won and US dollar will not be conducted during the day.The KRX operates markets for stocks, exchange-traded funds or

The government has proposed a bill to toughen the rules for reporting on certain financial transactions, the country's top financial regulator said Sunday.The move is part of Seoul's ongoing efforts to better ferret out financial crime and money laundering activities, the Financial Services Commission said.South Korea has tightened regulations on anti-money laundering and possible terrorism financing, targeting some loopholes that may be used by people to conceal their wealth. The FSC said in a

The interest payment burden on South Korea's lowest income households surged 33 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2018 amid a drop in their earnings, official data showed Sunday.According to Statistics Korea, households with two members in the bottom 20 percent earnings bracket earned 8 percent less in the January-March period while the country's interest rates moved upwards. Such developments are exacerbating the already tough debt service obligations of these households.Lower income and

The financial regulator has wrapped up its review of a regulatory probe into whether Samsung BioLogics Co. violated accounting rules, officials said Friday.Details of the review were not disclosed due to a confidentiality agreement, but the review apparently failed to reach a consensus as the Financial Services Commission said there were some "majority and minority opinions" about the case.The review came after financial authorities gave a preliminary notice earlier last month to Samsu

KEB Hana Bank chief to attend hearing on arrest warrant Friday

The Bank of Korea on Thursday rebuked claims by a local news report that the central bank “inflated” the nation’s export volume over the past eight years for the sake of a “rosier” export economy outlook.On Wednesday evening, local television channel MBC claimed that the nation’s balance of payments has been exaggerated since 2010, when the Bank of Korea began applying new International Monetary Fund standards to its statistics. 　The chronic trade deficit in t

The prosecution has filed for an arrest warrant for KEB Hana Bank chief Ham Young-joo over job-related irregularities, prosecution officials said Wednesday.The request for a warrant came nearly two months after the financial watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), said its own investigation has found at least 32 cases of alleged hiring irregularities at the bank.In 2013, the bank hired 229 college graduates, 32 of whom were hired after allegedly receiving recommendations from the bank

Two financial units under the Samsung conglomerate -- Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance -- unveiled plans Wednesday to sell off their Samsung Electronics shares by Thursday.Samsung Life Insurance, holding 8.23 percent of Samsung Electronics as of Wednesday, will sell off some 23 million shares worth 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion), so that its ownership ratio will decrease to 7.92 percent, its regulatory filing showed.Also, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance will se

From its very early years, South Korea’s leading asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments has kept ahead of its competitors in expanding business overseas -- a strategy turning out to be rewarding in recent years.The company has launched an asset management firm in Vietnam this year in partnership with the Southeast Asian country’s State Capital Investment Corporation, expanding its business leverage in the area, according to officials.“Based on our research capacit

High-net-worth-individuals who subscribe to private banking products were more inclined to invest in foreign countries than domestic, showed a survey by Korea’s brokerage house Samsung Securities. The survey was based on responses by 100 private bankers in Samsung Securities. The respondents‘ answers reflected thoughts of HNWIs -- who hold over 100 million won ($92,700) in assets individually -- according to the company. Seventy-eight of the respondents said their HNWIs picked foreig

South Korean financial technology startup QARASoft on Tuesday launched a beta version of an artificial intelligence-powered application to forecast financial market movements. Dubbed “Kosho,” the robo adviser app is expected to offer a prediction for the following week, based on over 400 million financial market indicators for the last 30 years, accumulated and analyzed by QARASoft’s deep learning engine, Market Dreamer. Market Dreamer offers quantitative analyses for stock mar

South Korea’s financial regulator unveiled Monday plans to create an electronic system to track real-time foreign stock transactions and changes in outstanding stocks, in order to ramp up oversight of securities trade here amid growing public distrust in the current system and hostility against short selling. Through a newly created monitoring system, the Korea Securities Depository would cross-check the volume of outstanding stocks reported by the custodian bank of each foreign investor,

Amid widening market volatility on looming rate hikes at home and abroad, investors have been taking to money market accounts to park their cash. One of such accounts by Standard Chartered Bank Korea, the local unit of the London-based banking group, offer investors not only a place to park cash, but also interest rate up to 1.7 percent a year before tax. South Korea’s current base rate is 1.5 percent.Subscribers to the bank’s “SC My Zoom Account” are offered a maximum of