Today

Myeong-dong rent costs drop amid fast shift to e-commerce

Seoul’s famed shopping district ranks 9th worldwide, 1 notch down from previous year

Today

Insurance industry looks forward to more active investments, M&A deals

Amid growing concerns over worsening profits, insurance companies in South Korea said Monday they plan to roll out new services, incorporating new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. They also pledged more investments for the emerging technologies and startups.“Korean insurance firms will utilize new technologies, including AI, in different areas from risk assessment, to have a competitive edge in the face of the looming ‘fourth industrial revolution,’&rd

Today

34 Kospi 200 firms lack whistleblowing policy: report

More than 30 Kospi 200 firms still have no whistleblowing policy for transparent management of their accounting control system, according to the latest report released by Samjong KPMG on Monday. The accountancy firm’s report shows that 34 of the top 200 Kospi firms, have no whistleblowing policy within their account rule books, while three others did not publicly disclose their policies through the regulatory filing. The Kospi 200 is the index tracking a basket of 200 blue chip firms liste

Today

DRAM prices up for 11 consecutive days, boding well for chipmakers

Spot market prices for DRAM chips are surely on a rising course as they went up for 11 straight days, industry data showed Monday, boding well for South Korean chipmakers. The spot price of 8-gigabit DDR4 DRAM, a benchmark price for the category, reached $3.34 as of last Friday, according to data from market tracker DRAMeXchange, marking the 11th consecutive day of a rise. This is the first time since October 2017 that the spot price of DRAM went up for 11 consecutive days.  The latest DRAM

Jan 19, 2020

D.Camp holds first startup pitching event for 2020

D.Camp, a leading South Korean startup accelerator, said Sunday that augmented reality solution startup Qrio and health tech startup 9to6 topped its first pitching competition of 2020, held last week in Seoul. The event was organized together with InvestHK, an agency responsible for foreign direct investment in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, a state-run trade organization.Qrio has developed a mobile AR application that helps users create their own virtual action figures

Jan 19, 2020

Samsung likely to replace chiefs of most financial units

Samsung Group is expected to replace most of the chief executives at its financial units, including Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Card, according to news reports on Sunday.According to local business daily the Korea Economic Daily, the conglomerate is scheduled to carry out its annual reshuffle of C-level executives this week, starting with its flagship Samsung Electronics and other IT affiliates on Monday.Financial units, including Samsung Securities and Samsung Card, will follow suit on T

Jan 19, 2020

Bias toward tech firms flusters stock market investors

South Korea’s stock market was tepid in 2019 and continues to face uncertainties, rankling many investors who are complaining that technology firms are being preferred for listing on the secondary Kosdaq bourse.While the stock market operator has highlighted the system as a vital foothold for new promising and innovative business players, skeptics also suggest that it provides excessive benefits to underqualified rookies.The number of companies listed on Kosdaq through the preferential pro

Jan 17, 2020

S. Korea sees $920m in foreigners’ net purchase last year

Foreign investors in South Korea net purchased some $920 million, or 1.04 trillion won, of locally listed stocks last year, but the figure was conspicuously lower than that of peer emerging economies, data showed Friday.According to Yuanta Securities, the combined net purchase volume by foreigners on the nation’s benchmark Kospi and tech-laden secondary Kosdaq marked $924 million in 2019.Among emerging economies, India topped the list in amount at $14.2 billion, followed by Taiwan and Indo

Jan 16, 2020

Seoul Real Estate Forum names new head

The Seoul Real Estate Forum said Thursday that it had named Wang Jeong-han as its sixth president.Wang, 57, will double as head of the SREF and the Seoul-based Ara Group Architects and Planners, dedicated to architecture, design, construction management and audits in South Korea. Wang has led Ara since 1998. Founded in 2003, the SREF is a forum comprising some 200 members, including real estate professionals and professors in Korea. The forum holds monthly seminars that center on the latest

Jan 16, 2020

FSC pledges to step up efforts to grow fintech industry

With bills on personal data and credit information passing the legislature, Korean financial authority Financial Services Commission and other financial organizations on Thursday vowed to make joint efforts to create a better, fair environment for the financial technology market.“The FSC hopes to see fintech firms achieve successful results of their businesses this year, and for that, it will not spare efforts to support them,” said Kwon Dae-young, director general of FSC’s fin

Jan 16, 2020

KEB Hana, Woori tense up on DLF penalty decision

FSS holds sanctions committee to review ‘warning’ decision on both bank CEOs

Jan 16, 2020

Shinhan reviews legal action against Lime Asset

Shinhan Bank is considering taking legal action against Lime Asset Management, claiming the fund operator made a unilateral decision last year to hedge its portfolio with a fund sold through the commercial lender, officials said Thursday. According to Shinhan, Lime Asset didn’t inform the lender of its plans to use Lime Credit Insurance Trade Fund assets to prevent payment delays from other funds that were facing liquidity issues at the time and that its decision amounted to a breach of tr

Jan 16, 2020

Foreigners ownership on Kospi hits 13-year high

Foreign stock ownership on Seoul’s benchmark Kospi bourse reached the highest level this week since 2006, industry data showed Thursday.According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, offshore investors held a net 585.98 trillion won ($431 billion) as of Tuesday -- 38.90 percent of the bourse’s market capitalization of 1,506 trillion won. The figure is the highest since Aug. 8, 2006, that accounted for 38.91 percent of Kospi’s market value. Foreign investors’ str

Jan 15, 2020

Reinsurance firm Korean Re launches second branch in China

The Korean Reinsurance Co. (Korean Re), a leading domestic reinsurance firm here, announced the launch of its Shanghai office on Wednesday. The opening came after it received approval from China’s banking and insurance authorities in December. The new office is the second Chinese location for the Korean firm, which has run its business in Beijing since 1997. The new branch will be in charge of sales while the Beijing office will continue to lead the management and market research.The