South Korea’s financial services lobby groups have called on regulators to take a step back from their involvement in corporate internal affairs, industry sources said Tuesday, apparently irked by the authorities’ clampdown on their chiefs held responsible for private fund misselling scandals. Six representative bodies for financial service firms here, including commercial banking, brokerage and insurers, filed a joint request Monday asking regulators to hand the companies’ b

Amid the government’s move to bolster household debt management, the Financial Supervisory Service said Tuesday it has handed down a warning to KB Savings Bank over its loose screening for unsecured loans. KB Savings Bank turned out to have increased the amount of credit loans allowed for households since July last year by raising its lending programs’ loan limit and offering a discounted interest rate, without a strict review process led by the executive meeting, a FSS official sai

Kyobo Life Insurance and its minority shareholders both argued Monday that they had won an arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce over a drawn out dispute surrounding shares Kyobo Life Chairman Shin Chang-jae has to buy back from investors. The binding resolution indicated that the strike price for the put option -- forcing Shin to buy back the minority shareholders’ combined 24 percent stake in Kyobo Life at 409,000 won ($353.4) apiece -- is invalid, but the contract still

For some, the digital transition of South Korea’s financial markets is an opportunity; for others, coming from a system where banks are distrusted, it’s an uncrossable wall

Toss Bank will expand its loan services to thin filers with little credit history or borrowers with low credits through its advanced credit assessment system while delaying its official launch to next month, officials said Monday. The internet-only lender was expected to start business late this month after receiving the green light from the country’s financial regulator. But due to the bank’s last-minute schedule rearrangements, it will begin its operation starting the first week

Samsung Asset Management said Monday it has launched a dollar-denominated equity index fund that tracks the United States‘ broad-based S&P 500 constituents. This marked the first dollar-denominated stock index fund in Korea’s asset management industry, which allows dollar holders in South Korea to indirectly invest in popular foreign stocks in the US, the company said. The S&P 500 comprises of 505 constituents as of July, including technology stocks Apple, Microsoft, Amazo

Digital technology advancements have led the business community to popularize the abbreviation VUCA -- short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity -- with great hype and enthusiasm. The concept connotes the spirit of risk-taking, agility and lean business practices required in the current age of digital transformation -- and, most recently, environmental, social and governance development. A new landscape is forming under corporate objectives to manage the intensifying ESG risks

Amid growing pressure from the government’s tightened grip on soaring household debt, South Korean banks’ lending rates sharply edged up in recent months, data showed Sunday.  The adjustable rate charged on mortgage loans extended by the nation’s four major banks -- KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan, Hana and Woori -- remained between 2.80 percent and 4.30 percent, as of Friday. Both the bottom and upper ends of the range rose 0.5 percentage point from 2.35 to 3.88 percent estim

From mobile step counters to secondhand coupons, digital natives look for new ways of making money extra -- but there’s always risks

The way to create a fair market for all is to empower individual investors to keep bureaucratic power in check, the founder of WallStreetBets, a group of US retail investors behind the GameStop saga, told The Korea Herald in a recent interview. Vowing to support an anti-short selling campaign in Korea, WallStreetBets Founder Jaime Rogozinski said he understands the nature of South Korea‘s negative public sentiment toward some foreign institutions. “I agree with negative public sent

Scandal-ridden Namyang Dairy Products Chairman Hong Won-sik said Wednesday he and other shareholders scrapped a stake sales and purchase deal with Seoul-based private equity firm Hahn & Co., citing unfulfilled requests from their end. Hong added that the shareholders are considering holding Hahn & Co. legally accountable for the collapse of the 310.7 billion won ($270.2 million) deal. “I regret to say that our plan to normalize Namyang Dairy’s business did not bear fruit,

South Korean banks saw their financial health improve in the second quarter from three months earlier as they reported high net profits and raised capital amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The average capital adequacy ratio of 16 commercial and state-run banks stood at 15.65 percent as of end-June, up 0.29 percentage point from the end of March, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). A key barometer of financial soundness, the ratio measures the pr

South Korea‘s mobile payment app operator Kakao Pay has revised down its target offer price range for the initial public offering of its stocks as its plan to go public underwent a two-month delay, a prospectus showed Tuesday. The decision will reduce the IPO size of the Ant Group-backed financial arm of internet giant Kakao, by up to some 100 billion won ($86.3 million). Under the new plan to float 17 million common shares, each share will be priced at the suggested target price range

South Korea’s three top cryptocurrency exchanges -- Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- launched a joint venture to co-develop solutions for a “travel rule” system, the companies said Tuesday. They invested 300 million won ($258,115) each in the new joint venture, COnnect Digital Exchanges or CODE, to satisfy the mandate before the deadline set by the government and an international anti-money laundering body. The travel rule is a global standard imposed by the Financial Actio

New York-based private equity firm Blackstone is attempting to cash in on its holdings in Simone Acc Collection for up to 320.7 billion won ($275.3 million) in a partial exit involving an initial public offering, a prospectus showed Tuesday. The IPO of luxury handbag maker Simone, which could fetch up to 400.9 billion won before its proposed October listing on the Korea Exchange‘s main board Kospi, will allow the world’s largest private equity investor to carry out an immediate exi