Student loans from high-interest lenders almost halved over the past year on the back of government efforts to encourage students to borrow from less expensive lenders, the state regulator said on FridayThe Financial Supervisory Service said, as of June, total student loans fell to 34.2 billion won ($30.3 million), down 47.5 percent, from a year ago. The FSS data showed that a college student on average borrows about 2.1 million won a year. But the delinquency rate slightly increased to 16.9 per

Tax officials undertaxed taxpayers to the tune of 1.85 trillion won ($1.64 billion) over the past five years, according to a tax authority report.In the report submitted by the National Tax Service to Rep. Ahn Min-seok of the main opposition Democratic Party on Thursday, the public was revealed to have been overtaxed by 353.8 billion won in the same period. Amid growing criticism, the NTS noted that it had punished or issued warnings to about 17,000 officials involved in tax miscalculation.Howev

A government plan to merge a state-controlled bank and financial corporation is expected to reduce state lending capacity, backfiring on cash-short small and medium enterprises, experts said on Wednesday.The move came as state authorities are set to integrate the Korea Development Bank and the Korea Financial Corp. in the course of reorganizing state-controlled brokerages. The KDB and the KoFC were established in 1954 and 2009, respectively, largely to boost the national economy by providing cre

The National Pension Service bought a large sum of shares related to automobile and financial companies in the first half of this year, officials said Monday. The Financial Supervisory Service posted on its official website that NPS’ share in Hyundai Motor Group, the country’s No. 1 automaker, rose 1.04 percentage point to 6.99 percent. Financial research and consulting firm FnGuide noted a conspicuous increase in the state pension service’s stock purchase in transportation equipment and auto pa

State authorities are pushing to give three more years to the government’s stimulus policies for corporate restructuring, financial sources said on Sunday.The existing corporate restructuring stimulus policy, scheduled to be in effect until Dec. 31, 2013, will be extended to the same day of 2016 if the policy proposal is able to gain lawmakers’ approval. The restructuring stimulus act in question, which allows indebted firms to continue business operations over the course of clearing debt, is co

Pernod Ricard SA’s single malt whisky “The Glenlivet” won 12 gold prizes in two globally recognized international whisky competitions, the company said on Thursday. The Glenlivet won seven gold medals in the International Spirits Challenge, or ISC, with its 12-year, 15-year, 18-year, 21-year and 25-year whiskies as well as with the Glenlivet Master Distiller’s Reserve and the Glenlivet Nadurra. The company takes special pride in its 18-year Glenlivet, the winner of this year’s Best In Class Awar

Kim Sun-yong, the second son of former Daewoo Group chairman Kim Woo-choong, was found to have purchased a country club in Vietnam through a paper company he established in an overseas tax haven, a group of journalists claimed on Thursday.The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, locally known as Newstapa, said that the junior Kim holds a 100 percent share for the luxury Vietnamese golf course called “Van Tri Golf Club.” Former chairman Kim is known to play golf there, Newstapa added. Newst

The banking industry is expected to see a continued decrease in net profits in the second quarter, dashing hopes for a recovery in its earnings, a financial report said Monday.Researchers said that low interest rates would likely continue for the meantime, ultimately yielding less profit. Large firms’ underperformance, represented by STX Group and Ssangyong E&C, also accounted for the banks’ earning shock in the second quarter, they said.Financial companies, too, have admitted that the second qu

The nation’s main bourse on Thursday issued a warning to Hanyang Securities for engaging in irregular trading of financial derivatives products.The brokerage unit of Hanyang University sought to hamper other investors’ profits through the trading of KOSPI200 option products by issuing an excessive amount of “sell” orders at a certain price, according to the Korea Exchange.Exchange officials said the biggest victims in the aftermath of the firms’ practice were small investors. As Hanyang took a l

The nation’s financial watchdog launched a probe into suspected illegal foreign exchange dealings by owners of paper companies established in overseas tax havens, officials said Tuesday.The Financial Supervisory Service said that the investigation was targeting 184 people who were disclosed by a news organization as holders of paper companies in tax havens abroad such as Virgin Islands. The investigation is the largest in scale of the financial watchdog’s probe into the alleged foreign exchange