The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 10th installment. - Ed.Despite living in the era of information technology, financial consumers in South Korea have found it hard to gain access to trustworthy information online about financial products to compare and choose what suits the best.Lee Hye-min, co-chief executive officer of financial technology startup Finda, said financial consumers’ basic necessities

Korea's financial regulator said Tuesday the government will support "normal transactions" of cryptocurrencies, about three weeks after it banned their trading through anonymous bank accounts.The remarks by Choe Heung-sik, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, were seen as being in stark contrast to the government's previous stance that it could consider shutting down local virtual currency exchanges.Korea launched a real-name trading system for cryptocurrency transactions Jan

The government is considering easing the tax burden on smaller firms and extending more financing to bolster their exports, the country's chief economic policymaker said Tuesday.In a meeting with top executives of small and medium enterprises, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon also vowed to lift regulatory hurdles facing them in doing business. "The government is mulling a set of measures to ease the tax burden on smaller firms," Kim said. "We are also looking at various options to b

Non-bank institutions will be allowed to directly engage in currency exchange business starting next month as part of a broader deregulation drive to promote the local financial technology sector, the finance ministry said Tuesday.Under revised regulations on currency exchange, a qualified fintech firm will be able to offer a currency exchange service of up to $2,000 per person through their online platforms. Such fintech firms are required to make a reserve against potential claims from custome

Lendit, a peer-to-peer lending platform operator in South Korea, has extended a combined 101.8 billion won ($95.4 million) in nearly 7,300 consumer loans as of Monday to midrange borrowers seeking lower interest rates, according to the fintech startup Monday. After its 33 months of operation, Lendit marked the first local P2P lending platform operator fully devoted to consumer loan products to see the accumulated volume of loans top the 100 billion won mark, the company said. Borrowers from

Raonsecure, a South Korean biometric authentication firm, has teamed up with Seoul-based blockchain developer The Loop, to develop an authentication system for online financial services.The firms signed a memorandum of understanding on Feb. 12.  Through the partnership, Raonsecure is expected to build a biometric authentication system on a decentralized platform provided by The Loop.Raonsecure follows the “fast identity online” security standard, which uses fingerprint, iris and

SEJONG -- Sales of local cryptocurrency exchange operators are presumed to have soared more than eightyfold in 2017 compared with a year earlier, data showed Sunday.According to the data released by Rep. Park Kwang-on of the ruling Democratic Party, accumulated commission-related sales of some 30 cryptocurrency exchange operators are presumed to have reached 700 billion won ($648 million) as of the end of last year, compared with an estimated amount of 8 billion won as of the end of 2016. South

South Korean stocks could experience more volatility next week as investors move to rebalance their portfolios to reflect the latest economic data and prospects for the US interest rate following the Lunar New Year holiday, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 2,421.83 points on Wednesday, the last trading session of this week, with the traditional holiday beginning on Thursday. It marked a 2.39 percent gain compared to last Friday. The local market re

Smart card manufacturer Kona I said Tuesday it has been selected as card supplier of a pilot project by US card firm Visa to develop a biometric payment card using fingerprint recognition technology. The Seoul-based firm will supply battery-free card components featuring energy harvesting technology to create pilots that capture, store and validate the card holder‘s fingerprint on the card, according to the firm. The move is expected to “endorse (Kona I’s) advanced technology a

South Korean stocks ended higher Monday helped by bargain hunting by retail investors and gains on Wall Street. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 21.61 points, or 0.91 percent, to close at 2,385.38. Trade volume was moderate at 344.76 million shares worth 6.41 trillion won ($5.91 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 458 to 361. The local market advanced after Wall Street recovered Friday to pare some of its earlier losses. The

Despite widespread criticism, local IP service head says NPEs are exercising legitimate rights

South Korea’s central bank, the Bank of Korea, announced Friday it would sign a currency swap deal on Feb. 20 with Switzerland‘s counterpart, the Swiss National Bank. The agreement will be signed in Zurich, Switzerland.The deal is expected to allow the Korean won and Swiss franc to be purchased and repurchased between the two central banks, as large as 10 billion Swiss franc ($10.6 billion). The maturity period will be three years and can be extended upon an additional bilateral agre

Shinhan Bank will offer a 0.5 percent bonus rate to clients participating in the “Sunfull” clean Internet campaign, the bank said in a ceremony held at its Seoul headquarters Tuesday.The Sunfull Internet Peace Movement involves leaving positive comments online to encourage support and consideration among online users, Shinhan Bank said in a statement.The campaign is jointly hosted by the Sunfull Foundation, which aims to spread peace through non offensive online comments and educate

Celltrion, a biosimilar maker listed on South Korea’s second-tier bourse Kosdaq, will begin trading on the top-tier market Kospi starting Friday, according to the Korea Exchange on Wednesday.Celltrion is the largest Kosdaq-listed share, with 31.4 trillion won ($28.9 billion) in market cap as of Wednesday. The maker of biosimilar drugs, such as Remsima and Truxima, is expected to constitute Korean markets’ composite benchmark indexes such as KRX 300 and Kospi 200. On Monday, the KRX,

US investors held 265.1 trillion won ($244 billion) worth of stocks listed in South Korea as of the end of 2017, accounting for nearly 42 percent of all foreign-owned stocks, data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed Wednesday.US investors net bought stocks worth over 13 trillion won last year, becoming a major force behind the local bourse’ strong rally. The volume of US investment has increased by fourfold from 2008, when the Fed began its zero-rate policy, pushing investors to