FUTURE OF DIGITAL CURRENCY -- Participants discuss the future of central bank digital currencies in a session at Deconomy 2018, held in Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. From left are: Jeff Paik, chief executive at Finector; Clark Thompson, solution architect at Consensys; Ian Grigg, partner at Block.one; Antony Lewis, director of research, CBDC strategy at R3; and Stanley Yong, global lead for CBDC at IBM. Yonhap

The chief of the state-run credit backer of SMEs on Wednesday offered to resign following a scandal over an extramarital affair. Kim Kyu-ok, who leads the Korea Technology Finance Corp., offered his resignation, according to Ministry of SMEs and Startups officials, following his alleged adultery. The ministry said it will decide soon whether it should conduct an audit or ask the police to investigate him.  Earlier Wednesday, local cable network JTBC reported that Kim has had an inappropriat

South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group is facing increased pressure to break away from its circular shareholding corporate governance, as its insurance units may have to sell off most of their affiliate stocks in compliance with reinforced financial regulations.Weighing further upon the group is the recent appointment of a former civic group activist and progressive lawmaker who is known for reformist conglomerate policies as the head of the nation’s financial market watchd

Foreign banks with branches in South Korea reported a decline in earnings here in 2017, on falling interest and trading income, data showed Wednesday.  The 38 branches from global banks across the globe had logged a combined 680.7 billion won ($642.8 million) of net income in 2017, down 10.6 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The branches suffered a drop in interest income by 58.3 billion won, or 5.2 percent on-year. The los

South Korea's cryptocurrency exchange operators reaped huge profits in 2017 on the back of the national frenzy over digital money, data showed Wednesday.The annual turnover of BTC Korea.com, which is in charge of local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, stood at 333.4 billion won ($315.6 million) in 2017, up a sharp 77 times on-year from 4.3 billion won. Its net profit jumped from 2.5 billion won to 427.2 billion won over the past year, according to the report by Vidente Co. The major source of in

South Korea’s top five financial conglomerates and two other financial heavyweights will be required to ease their intra-group transactions, especially their cross-shareholding structures, according to regulators.The Financial Services Commission on Tuesday announced a reinforced set of rules, obligating major financial companies to sell off their shares in non-financial affiliates in case such business practices may bring risks in the financial system. The regulation, which came as p

The new governor of the Financial Supervisory Service in his inauguration speech Monday stressed a need to bolster autonomy as a regulator and enhance consumer protection. Kim Ki-sik, a new chief regulator of financial institutions who took office Monday, succeeded the role of Choe Heung-sik, who offered to step down on March 12. Ex-governor Choe‘s resignation came amid growing allegations of irregularities and abuse of power in the process of hiring entry-level employees at Hana Financial

Korea's central bank chief said Monday that the country's monetary policy tools will be used to support the economy and maintain financial stability at the same time."It is necessary to manage monetary policy in such a way as to make the financial system more stable and help the momentum for recovery," Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said in an inaugural ceremony for his second four-year term. He was reappointed by President Moon Jae-in last month."The central bank will keep the ac

Local banks reduced their workforces and branch offices last year by the greatest number since 2000, with digitalization-driven downsizing accelerating, data from the financial regulator showed Sunday.The number of employees in the banking sector at the end of last year totaled 111,173, down 3,602 from the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Statistics Information System operated by the regulator Financial Supervisory Service. The level of downsizing is the biggest since 5,20

Loans extended by the nation's five major banks to individuals for home rentals jumped 38.5 percent on-year in February amid the government's tightening of mortgages for new homes, according to industry data Saturday. Outstanding loans extended by the five lenders, including Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, specifically for home rentals amounted to about 49 trillion won ($46.1 billion) as of the end of last month, up 13.6 trillion won from a year ago, the data showed.  The rise is apparently

South Korea's top financial regulator on Friday nominated a veteran civic activist and former lawmaker to head the Financial Supervisory Services, officials said.Kim Ki-sik, 52, who had served various posts at the nongovernmental organization People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy until 2011, was tapped for the post, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.If President Moon Jae-in approves Kim's nomination, he will succeed Choe Heung-sik, who resigned earlier this month ov

The number of marginal companies stuck in the financial quagmire with little room for profitability growth has been on the rise, further bogging down the economy as it anticipates rate hikes, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday. Korea refers to firms with interest costs outweighing operating profits for at least three consecutive years as “marginal companies.”The number of such firms in 2016 came to 3,126, taking up 14.2 percent of all Korean non-financial firms subject to external au

Korea reiterated on Thursday that it has been in talks with the United States to improve the transparency of the country's currency market, once again stressing that the discussion is not related to the bilateral trade deal with the world's largest economy."The currency rate issue is not a bilateral one. It should rather be dealt with in a multilateral frame," said a senior official at the finance ministry, asking not to be named.The official said Seoul has expressed "deep" r

The US central bank is expected to raise its target number of rate hikes for this year to four times from the present three at its policy meeting in June, a local securities company said Wednesday.Last week, the US Fed raised the federal funds rate to 1.50-1.75 percent as widely expected, saying it has plans to jack up the rate two more times within the year. "Expectations for the Fed's four rate rises for this year are already reflected in interest rate futures," Lee Mi-seon, a resear

Banking units in South Korea wholly owned by foreign financial giants are expected to send about 35-40 percent of their net profit to their respective parent companies outside Korea through dividends. The banking entities have said the dividend payouts stemmed from a surge in net revenue and adequate capital buffer in 2017. In a board of directors’ meeting on March 14, Standard Chartered Bank Korea increased its dividend propensity to about 40 percent of net income in 2017, from 35.6