South Korea's top financial regulator said Monday that it has launched a probe into SC First Bank, the local unit of British banking giant Standard Chartered Plc, on allegedly infringing domestic bank regulations by giving metal loans to corporate customers. "Investigators were dispatched to SC First Bank and if we find (the bank) violated local regulations, we will summon the bank officials and...

Income inequality widened over the past decade, with the gains among the top 20 percent rising by more than half while those of the poorest 20 percent more than halved, the tax agency said Monday. Taxable income reported by the wealthiest 20 percent stood at an average of 90 million won ($83,210) in 2009, up 55 percent from 1999 when the figure was 58 million won, the National Tax Services said....

The Financial Supervisory Service is facing allegations that it failed to prevent its internal information from being leaked concerning the regulatory policies on savings banks. Among the allegations are that several customers of Busan Savings Bank withdrew large deposits a day before regulators suspended operations of the distressed bank in February. It has been alleged that key staffers of Bu...

Combined debts of Samsung, Hyundai Motor grow by 89 trillion won The nation’s 30 biggest business groups saw their combined debts snowball over the past three years, which could undermine their financial soundness, the Fair Trade Commission said on Sunday. According to the antitrust regulator, debts held by the top 30 groups came to 1.03 quadrillion won ($925 billion) as of March 2011, up 51.2 ...

Companies considering bigger budget and greater restrictions to protect data The local financial sector geared up to tighten security of its IT systems after watching hackers take advantage of security loopholes in the nation’s top financial firms, sources said Thursday. Major banks here said they were devising measures to step up security, such as beefing up their oversight teams or banning em...

Samsung Life Insurance Co., South Korea's top life insurer, said Thursday that its earnings more than doubled in fiscal 2010 from a year earlier thanks to investment gains from its securities holdings. Net income came to 1.93 trillion won ($1.8 billion) during the fiscal year that ended on March 31, compared with 906.1 billion won a year earlier, Samsung Life said in a regulatory filing. Samsun...

Question of central bank’s supervisory authority emerges Recent security incidents in the financial sector have reignited debate on whether the Bank of Korea should have authority to conduct independent inquiries into financial companies. Currently, the central bank is only entitled to probe financial companies jointly with the Financial Supervisory Service. While FSS-BOK joint investigations ...

Brokerages seek to capture rich investors on expectations of financial deregulation Brokerages are struggling to capture wealthy investors with high-yielding private equity products as deregulation in homegrown hedge funds looms large. Money poured into hedge fund-style products as soon as top brokerages such as Samsung, Woori Investment and Korea Investment rolled them out in the past month, s...

South Korea’s credit card spending expanded 16.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier amid the country’s consumer price advance, a trade association said Wednesday. Purchases made by credit card amounted to 105.2 trillion won ($96.9 billion) during the January-March period, compared with 90.6 trillion won in the same period last year, according to the Credit Finance Association. The...

A bad bank, which is about to emerge under financial regulators’ move to write off overdue assets, is expected to absorb as much as 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in overdue loans held by financial companies. While regulators are considering setting up the bad bank before the third quarter, sources predicted Tuesday that it could initially purchase around 4 trillion won in soured project finance ...