Standard Chartered Bank Korea, KB Financial Group and Mirae Asset Daewoo were recognized for their best practices in corporate governance and ESG management, respectively, the companies said Wednesday.  SC Bank Korea, wholly owned by London-based Standard Chartered Bank, received the “A+” rating for a second consecutive year in the Korea Corporate Governance Service‘s corporate governance evaluation on companies‘ shareholder-friendly approach an

More than a half of credit card loan users in South Korea pay debts with cash withdrawn from multiple financial institutions, data showed Monday, indicating that both credit card issuers and commercial banks are facing a growing default risk. About 56 percent of the country’s 2.6 million holders of credit card loans were found to have received loans from more than three financial service companies, including credit card issuers and banks, between January and June, said Rep. Jeon Jae-su fr

South Korea’s state-run trade insurance firm has failed to retrieve some 1.4 trillion won ($1.2 billion) so far spent to cover local exporters' losses in their deals with foreign companies, data showed Tuesday. The Korea Trade Insurance Corp. also known as K-Sure under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, mainly offers guarantees to banks that extend loans to Korean overseas developers that require large-scale and long-term financing and issue bonds to exporters. But it also offers

Standard Chartered Bank Korea said Monday it planned to host a webinar on environmental, social and governance investment on Thursday as such standards become more prominent in the coronavirus pandemic era. The event, co-hosted by a local youth civic group Green Environment Youth Korea, will discuss the subject of climate change along with sustainable financial investment for millennials, among other subjects. Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters, who recently wrapped-up a monthlong tr

KB Financial Group and the Korea Growth Investment Corp. said Sunday that they would select two external partners to establish funds worth at least 30 billion won ($26 million) as part of their five-year social impact investing initiative. KB Financial Group will commit 15 billion won to the two external partners combined, and K-Growth will provide 5 billion won. The selected partners will pool at least 10 billion won to create the funds by the first half of 2021, according to K-Growth’s

Tencent-backed online movie ticket booking platform Maoyan Entertainment has unloaded its stake in YG Entertainment worth a combined 22.1 billion won ($19.2 million) since August, disclosures showed Sunday. The selloff reduced the Chinese company’s control over South Korea‘s major entertainment powerhouse -- home to K-pop groups Big Bang, Blackpink and the newly-debuted Treasure -- to 5.78 percent, from the previous 8.09 percent. In September alone, Maoyan divested a combine

Corporate retirement pension funds managed by South Korea’s major commercial banks posted poor returns in the first half of the year, data showed Thursday. Low yields have also drawn criticism from a lawmaker here, who called for swift adoption of improvement measures in operating such funds. 　 Retirement pension funds managed by top commercial lenders saw their yield rates hover at 1.69 percent on average, according to the state regulator Financial Supervisory Service’s data acqui

Yoo Myung-soon, interim chief executive officer of Citibank Korea, was recommended as the sole candidate for the bank‘s top post, paving the way for her to become the first female CEO of the local branch of the US lender. The appointment recommendation committee under the South Korean subsidiary of the New York-based bank is set to confirm the appointment of Yoo during a general meeting of stockholders and board of directors slated to be held on Oct. 27. Yoo, the bank‘s senior ex

The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, the nation’s leading mutual financial institution, held an annual exchange program with its counterpart in Thailand to introduce the group’s ongoing projects and management tips, officials said Wednesday.  Arranged as one-day videoconference in line with the government’s strict quarantine measures against the COVID-19 resurgence, the training event provided a series of online lectures on KFCC‘s fund managemen

A string of hacking attempts to break into South Korea’s financial institutions from abroad have continued in recent years, data showed Monday, prompting calls for financial authorities to impose tougher security measures. As of August, there have been a total of 37 hacking cases targeting local financial firms from overseas over the past five years, said Rep. Hong Sung-guk of the ruling Democratic Party, quoting data from the watchdog Financial Supervisory Service. The majority of fra

Lawmaker blames card operators for taking advantage of low-rate loans, ample liquidity

More than 80 percent of applicants for reverse mortgages in recent years have been owners of high-rise apartments, data from the Korea Housing Finance Corp. showed Sunday, spurring concerns about inequitable access. Reverse mortgages were introduced in South Korea in 2007 and allow homeowners, mainly senior citizens, to receive payments on a monthly basis by borrowing against the value of their homes. From January to August, 6,636 people signed contracts with banks to borrow money by providi

South Korean banks and their customers lost nearly 500 billion won ($428 million) from employees’ financial crimes -- including embezzlement and fraud -- in the last five years, data compiled by the nation’s financial watchdog showed Sunday. Twenty local lenders saw losses worth a combined 488.4 billion won through 186 cases from 2016 to June this year, according to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Rep. Lee Young, a lawmaker of the main opposition People Power

Actis looks to capitalize on high demand for data centers accelerated by South Korea’s rapid digital transformation

Policy lender Korea Development Bank Chairman Lee Dong-gull said Monday that he is closely reviewing SsangYong Motor‘s fate as a sustainable automaker while refraining from mentioning its plan to provide financial assistance to the cash-strapped company. The focal point of SsangYong Motor must be “sustainability of business operations,” along with the shareholder‘s responsible actions and burden-sharing of all parties concerned, such as shareholders, the company and the