The Bank of Korea has completed moving more than 10 trillion won ($8.88 billion) of cash -- previously stashed in an underground vault -- to its Gangnam office, bank officials said Friday.The move comes as the central bank will be starting its three-year renovation of its headquarters in central Seoul from the second half of the year. This will include reconstruction of the main annex building to enhance security and safety, the BOK said. While most of the BOK’s departments are moving

Under the new Moon Jae-in administration, the Finance Ministry has set up renewed guidelines for next year’s budget prioritizing Moon’s key policies, such as job creation and income growth, the ministry said Friday.The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said it has revised its budget guidelines for 2018, which had been announced on March 31, to reflect the new government’s key policy tasks. “To reflect the new government’s policies and streamline the fiscal spend

South Korean stocks trading was nearly unchanged late Friday morning, with tech blue chips losing ground while auto large caps moved upward, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 1.59 points, or 0.07 percent, to hit 2,288.41 as of 11:20 a.m. Tech giant Samsung Electronics fell more than 2 percent, with chipmaker SK hynix shedding over 1 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor continued its bullish mode with a roughly 2-percent gain, and its affiliate Hyundai Mobis, an

Former Finance Minister Kang Man-soo was sentenced to four years in prison Friday on multiple corruption charges. The Seoul Central District Court convicted Kang, also a former head of the state-run Korea Development Bank, of pressuring the government to designate a biotech firm run by his friend as a business partner and provide billions of won in subsidies in December 2009. The court ordered him to pay a fine of 50 million won ($44,000). Kang was the country's finance minister from 2008 to ear

South Korean stocks started marginally lower on Friday, as a drop in top-listed firms offset gains in cosmetics and food companies, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 2.04 points, or 0.09 percent, to trade at 2,284.78 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Top-cap Samsung Electronics lost almost 1 percent, with No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor sliding 1.6 percent. But top cosmetics maker AmorePacific gained around 1 percent and major food maker CJ Cheiljedang clim

South Korean stocks declined 0.27 percent on Thursday, as an elevating US political crisis involving its president prodded investors into a flight from making risky bets, analysts said. The local currency fell against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index KOSPI closed down 6.26 points at 2,286.82. Trading volume was moderate at 374.4 million shares worth 5.83 trillion won ($5.18 billion) with decliners far outstripping gainers 507 to 296."Investors are beginning to w

Cultural change in the banking industry looms, with financial technology penetrating into the industry worldwide. But the new technology should be embellished with “human touch,” which would leverage deeper fintech penetration by improving customers’ satisfaction, bank officials said at a forum held at Standard Chartered Korea headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday.Michael Gorriz, chief information officer of the London-based international banking group, said in a keynote speech th

South Korean stocks traded 0.49 percent lower late Thursday morning, dragged down by a drop in top-cap tech and IT service companies, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 11.22 points to 2,281.86 as of 11:20 a.m.   Market behemoth Samsung Electronics was down nearly 1 percent, with Naver, the operator of the country's top search engine, losing 0.8 percent.In contrast, shares of automakers and mobile carriers moved in positive territory. Top automaker Hyund

South Korea's stock funds suffered outflows for an eighth straight trading session on profit-taking as the benchmark stock index stayed in a tight range, data showed Thursday. After touching its highest-ever close earlier last week, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index has lost some ground in recent trading sessions. According to the data by the Korea Financial Investment Association, domestic stock funds, excluding exchange traded funds, posted 993 billion won ($882 million) of net outflo

Shares of the two latest big debutants on South Korea's stock market -- Netmarble Games Corp. and ING Life Insurance Korea -- have tumbled well below their issue price as investors are leery of earnings and market outlooks, analysts said Thursday.South Korea's largest mobile games maker Netmarble Games Corp. successfully debuted on the country's main bourse on Friday above its initial public offering  price. The company closed at 162,000 won ($144.20), much higher than the IPO price of 157,

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Thursday, tracking their US peers that ended bearish amid intensifying political turmoil surrounding President Donald Trump's alleged interference with a federal investigation, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 11.18 points, or 0.49 percent, to trade at 2,281.90 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The US S&P 100 index marked its biggest fall in months Wednesday (local time), as investors opted for selling o

South Korean stocks inched down Wednesday as there was no fresh lead to drive the market following a recent rally, analysts said. The local currency fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 2.25 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 2,293.08. Trading volume was moderate at 390.4 million shares worth 5.62 trillion won ($5.02 billion), with decliners outstripping gainers 416 to 372. "The recent rally was largely driven by domestic-focused issues, whi

K-Bank, South Korea's first Internet-only bank, said Wednesday it has achieved 76 percent of its full-year target of attracting deposits just 45 days after launching operations. K-Bank, which was launched on April 3, has attracted 380 billion won ($339.2 million) in deposits, compared with this year's target of 500 billion won. K-Bank has also made loans worth 310 billion won, compared with this year's target of 400 billion won, the bank said.  The pace of growth in K-Bank's deposits and lo

Some 300 contract employees of Citibank Korea will unconditionally become full-time within 2017, the bank said Tuesday. The benefiting employees are office clerks and bank tellers, currently under unlimited term contracts. Previously, each year the Korean unit of the New York-based bank converted the contract employees into permanent positions through a set of screening processes, which accounted for one-fifth of the newly employed full-timers.The bank, however, has not determined the exact date

The daily foreign exchange turnover by local and foreign banks in South Korea rose 11.9 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter, the central bank said Wednesday.The daily FX turnover averaged $49.98 billion in the January to March period, compared to the previous quarter's $44.66 billion, according to the Bank of Korea. The daily trading volume of foreign exchange spots reached $19.41 billion in the first quarter, up 11.8 percent from the previous quarter.By currency type, the dai