The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, faced another problem with its cyber transaction systems early Thursday.A certain proportion of Nonghyup customers could not access its internet banking system for about five hours until 7 a.m. on the day.As this marked the fifth glitch in online transactions in less than one year for Nonghyup, its cyber security system has been regarded as seriously vulnerable to hackers.In April 2011, it suffered a critical breakdown of the network

HSBC has predicted that Korea would overtake the U.K. in trade ranking within 15 years by seeing a cumulative growth of 142 percent in trade volume by 2026.The projection for Korea by HSBC Global Connections far surpasses the figure for the world’s trade volume. It forecasts that the world’s trade will expand 86 percent by 2026.“Countries that will see increases in their share of world trade to 2026 include South Korea, which will replace the U.K. as the sixth-largest trading nation due to trade

KB Financial Group chairman Euh Yoon-dae expressed his willingness to collaborate with Samsung Life Insurance to take over ING Life’s Asia-Pacific operations.“ING Life is operating seven or eight units in the Asia-Pacific region. We have no capability to buy all of them,” he told reporters on Wednesday.If ING Life sells off only the ING Korea unit, KB Financial could participate in the coming bidding as a single bidder, he said.But if the company chooses to sell its entire Asia-Pacific operation

Nation’s No. 5 lender holds largest sales networksThe National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, will establish a financial group early next month, becoming the nation’s No. 5 lender in the financial industry.The new financial group’s debut reflects the government’s policy to separately operate the credit or financial sector and the economy or farm products marketing sector.The dividing of the business sector will mark the first time in 51 years since Agriculture Bank merged with

Regulators ask prosecutors to probe insurer over alleged stock riggingGreen Non-Life Insurance, which has been accused of stock manipulation, faces the possibility of business suspension or delisting from the stock market.Though the insurance firm has been mapping out a plan for management normalization, financial regulators filed a complaint against the firm and its chairman with the prosecution for allegedly rigging stocks.The regulatory sanction could make it impossible for the company to inc

Korea Exchange Bank saw its network system, including Internet banking and automated teller machines, break down for about 1-1/2 hours late Thursday.Though KEB said it restored the services around 8 p.m., the commercial bank did not reveal the factors for the breakdown.The Financial Supervisory Serv

Yim Tae-hee, a former South Korean presidential chief of staff, recently met with North Korean diplomats in the Chinese capital, a source here said Thursday."Yim and an accompanying person met with two diplomats from the North Korean embassy here from Feb. 2 to 4," the source said."I heard Yim told

Woori Financial Group reported a net profit of 2.15 trillion won ($1.88 billion) last year, a record-high yearly performance for the group.Its 2011 performance compares to 1.28 trillion won in net profit posted a year earlier.The financial group also saw its total assets maintain the No. 1 position in the local financial industry.In a statement, Woori Financial said it has strived to reduce insolvent assets over the past four years since the 2008 global financial crisis.Meanwhile, Woori Financia

Speculation rampant that two sides near compromise over mergerHana Financial Group chairman Kim Seung-yu has been striving to prevent the union of Korea Exchange Bank, which has been acquired by the group, from going on strike.While KEB unionized workers have threatened to stage an all-out strike, Kim held a low-key negotiation with leaders of the union on Thursday.According to a speculation, raised by an online news provider, the two parties reached an agreement, which includes that KEB will be