Regulator’s action against Lone Star Funds raises legal issuesHana Financial Group continues to face a hurdle in its plan to acquire Korea Exchange Bank from Lone Star Funds despite a court’s ruling that the U.S.-based equity fund engaged in stock manipulation.Over the past month, the Financial Services Commission has been in the preliminary stages of ordering Lone Star to sell a large portion of its stake in KEB following the court’s verdict on Oct. 6, which may pave the way for Hana Financial

CEO Hill promotes reform to compete with local commercial banksStandard Chartered First Bank Korea is considering opening several branches which offer offline and online services 24 hours a day and seven days a week, the first of their kind in the local financial sector.For the plan, the bank is reportedly benchmarking the case of a Singapore unit of the U.K.-based Standard Chartered Group.“In a shopping mall in Singapore, there is an SC bank branch providing customers with services till late at

The Financial Supervisory Service is set to conduct inquiries into five credit card companies to monitor their cyber security measures against possible leaks of customer information.The firms are BC Card, Shinhan Card, Hyundai Card, KB Kookmin Card, Lotte Card.BC Card has been scheduled to be under yearly regulatory probe and the remaining four issuers will be subject to extraordinary scrutiny in the wake of the frequent financial accidents in the credit card sector.The FSS has already completed

Critics call for regulator to reject Hana’s KEB takeoverThe nation’s financial regulator has been under mounting pressure to take stern action against Lone Star Funds, which was convicted of manipulating stocks of Korea Exchange Bank’s credit card affiliate.In particular, a group of lawmakers, professors and lawyers are calling for the Financial Services Commission to reject Hana Financial Group’s application to acquire KEB from Lone Star.Their calls come amid speculation that the FSC may “simpl

Commercial banks plan to lower their earning targets for 2012, forecasting that the nation will continue to suffer from the economic slowdown and their revenues will decrease due to their recent decision to slash transaction service charges.Woori Bank has set the aim of its net profit for next year at about 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion), compared to the 2011 goal of 1.8 trillion won.Shinhan Bank is considering scaling down the 2012 target to between 1 trillion and 2 trillion won, compared with

Korea’s major automakers posted contrasting sales performances at home and abroad last month.Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors saw their exports increase in October from a year earlier. But their sales at home dropped on a yearly basis.Hyundai Motor sold 305,923 units, including exports and overseas production, abroad last month, up 18.3 percent from 258,644 units a year ago.The nation’s largest automaker saw exports of 114,454 units and sales of 191,469 units from overseas factories, increases of 18

Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors ranked No. 2 in sales of small vehicles in China during the first nine months of 2011, automotive data showed.It said the two carmakers saw their ranking climb by four notches on a year-on-year basis by grabbing 10.9 percent of the Chinese market. They placed sixth during the same period last year.The data showed that Hyundai-Kia sold a combined 162,472 units in the compact car segment between January and September.The companies saw their sales jump 52.

Financial authorities are considering instructing securities firms to slash service fees, including those on transactions for stocks and equity funds.Over the past five years, the local brokerage sector has enjoyed huge gains ranging between 6 trillion won ($5.2 billion) and 9 trillion won per annum by charging financial consumers a variety of fees.“We plan to review the service charge structure of the overall brokerage sector. Then, we will map out guidelines (to cut the fees),” said an officia

The seventh Busan International Finance Conference will be held on Monday, under the theme of “development strategies for Busan as a global center of cloud computing and outsourcing for financial services industries.”Co-hosts include the Korea Institute of Finance, the International Financial Forum of Pusan National University, the Asia-Pacific Financial Markets Research Center of the University of Hawaii and the Bank of Korea’s Busan branch.“The event will prepare Busan city to play a pivotal r

Jobs popular among female workers from border countriesOSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- It has been more than two years since Hyundai Motor established a large-scale manufacturing plant in the Czech Republic.Apart from the factory’s role as a logistics base for Hyundai’s automobile sales in Europe, an issue has emerged as to whether the Korean company has been gaining favorable image from Czech citizens and its government.Though the automaker’s factory is located in a small city of Nosovice, whose pop

Automaker puts value on three P’s -- product, people and partnersMunich-based BMW Group regards Korea as one of the important markets for their global management despite its small portion in Korea of the automaker’s total sales worldwide.Apart from the boom in the import vehicle market in Korea, the automobile giant’s focus on Korea appears based on its strong confidence in its Korea branch CEO Kim Hyo-joon.Last year, personnel managers at the company’s German headquarters asked the 54-year-old