Prosecutors raided the headquarters of Samsung Securities Co. on Monday as part of an investigation into last month's massive dividend error by an accidental stock issuance worth over 110 trillion won ($100 billion). Investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office were sent to search the premises in Seocho, southern Seoul, and four other branches to confiscate evidence, including documents and digital files, the office said. Prosecutors are investigating the stock blunder

All banks will be required to adopt tougher guidelines for mortgage loans in the second half of this year, officials said Sunday, in accordance with the government's latest push to curb household debt. The decision was made last Friday at a meeting of financial regulators, senior bank executives and other financial institutions, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.Currently, people's ability to repay home mortgages is calculated on the basis of their home mortgage principal and

South Korean banks are planning to adopt a unified authentication certificate for online transactions in July to enhance customers' convenience, industry people said Sunday.Eighteen members of the Korean Federation of Banks plan to introduce the unified certificate named BankSign in July to allow customers to make online financial transactions using their PIN numbers, secret patterns or fingerprints, a bank official said.Customers can download the BankSign from each bank's application and use it

Alex Tapscott, co-author of best-seller ‘Blockchain Revolution,’ discusses post-crypto frenzy, opens up on working with his father on new edition

Stocks related to inter-Korean businesses suffer, markets likely to experience volatilities next week, experts say

The recent cancellation of the US-North Korea summit will likely have a limited impact on the South Korean financial market, a senior central bank official said Friday.The Bank of Korea held an emergency meeting at 8:30 a.m., hours after US President Donald Trump released his letter to scrap the planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore.The closed-door meeting was chaired by Yoon Myun-shik, the senior deputy governor of the BOK, with several senior officials at

South Korea’s central bank kept the interest rate steady at 1.5 percent for six straight months in a unanimous board decision Thursday, citing external uncertainties due to an upshot in capital influx and currency woes from emerging markets.Despite relatively solid economic growth at home and abroad, the lingering uncertainties and low inflationary pressure on the demand side here led to the “accommodative monetary policy stance,” according to the seven-member Monetary Policy B

US exchange operator CME Group has immediately suspended South Korea’s brokerage Hana Financial Investment‘s access to electronic trading or clearing platforms and markets run by the US derivatives exchange operator.Following the disciplinary action effective starting Tuesday, customers of the Korean securities firm are being banned from trading futures or options on CME Group’s platforms including Globex, using Hana‘s home trading system. The access will be denied for 60

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Tuesday that Africa can greatly benefit from changes being brought on by the fourth industrial revolution.In a gathering of the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) meeting on the sidelines of the weeklong annual African Development Bank (AfDB) gathering in Busan, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said that while the continent may not have traditional industrial foundations, a bold adoption of the latest technological changes could transform the reg

Up-and-coming exchange aims to change game with global network of comprehensive trade data

Banks in South Korea will see eased regulation when opening physical offshore units, as a revision bill gained approval from the Cabinet on Monday.  Following the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Banking Act, banks will be exempt from the obligation to report to authorities about the establishment of foreign offices or branches prior to the setup, unless the investment into the foreign unit exceeds 1 percent of its capital. Before the revision, banks were required to submit a repor

Companies listed on South Korea’s top-tier stock market Kospi saw their debt-to-capital ratio come to 111.4 percent in 2017, up 0.9 percentage point on-year, data showed Monday. The combined amount of liabilities of Kospi-listed firms reached 1,182.8 trillion won ($1.1 trillion), up 2.5 percent compared to a year prior, whereas the volume of capital came to 1,061.9 trillion won, up 1.7 percent, according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange.The market operator analyzed data on 598 firms

A sizable number of South Korean companies are hard pressed to repay their outstanding debt with the profit they make, a situation that could expose them to more risks amid a steady rise in interest rates, a local think tank said Sunday. The LG Economic Research Institute said 11.8 percent of local businesses are not able to effectively pay back their dues with their earnings from normal business operations.It said this percentage had actually fallen from 14.2 percent in 2012 to 8.8 percent thre

The average loan-deposit spread of local lenders reached a 3 1/2 year high of 2.35 percent in the first quarter of this year, the central bank said Sunday.   According to the Bank of Korea, the spread is the largest since the 2.44 percent tallied in the third quarter of 2014. It said the gap between interest paid by banks to their savings account holders and the interest rate for outstanding loans had fallen to 2.14 percentage points in the July-September period of 2016, but the number

Woori Bank Co., South Korea's third-largest commercial bank, said Sunday it will transform itself into a holding company by early next year to as part of effort to expand its business portfolio. Woori Bank said the decision is aimed at expanding its businesses from traditional banking to asset management, real estate and other financial services. The bank, which is 18.5 percent owned by the government, said it aims to establish the holding company by early 2019, taking consideration of time need