South Korea's anti-trust watchdog is investigating dozens of local companies for their possible involvement in business malpractice that could result in unusual price hikes in the market, government officials said Monday. The investigation comes on the heels of a separate probe launched by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Jan. 10 into price rigging and other inflation-causing activities in the...

South Korean banks saw their loan default rates fall to the lowest level in 12 months in December following their enhanced efforts to clear soured loans ahead of year-end book closings, the financial regulator said Monday. Loans overdue by one day or more reached 0.91 percent, or 9 trillion won ($8 billion), of the total lending held by 18 local banks as of the end of December, sharply down from...

The Bank of Korea is focusing on the coming revised outlook of the International Monetary Fund for the 2011 global economy as the U.S. economy is showing positive signs of recovery. An issue is whether the IMF will revise its forecast on Korea’s GDP growth upward for this year, from its projection of 4.5 percent in October. The figure was identical to the outlook issued by the BOK. While BOK Go...

The International Monetary Fund approved a two-year contingent credit line to the Republic of Macedonia in the first use of newly launched insurance program guided by the Group of 20 last year. The former Yugoslavian republic became the IMF’s first recipient of the Precautionary Credit Line, securing 476 million euros ($642 million) for this year and next. The measure is part of the internation...

Financial groups may avoid taking on bad assets of savings banks The government-led restructuring of savings banks may end up injecting a sizable amount of taxpayers’ money into troubled secondary financial institutions, industry watchers said. The Financial Supervisory Commission is in talks with potential investors including Woori Financial Group to arrange a sweeping rescue scheme for distre...

Korean stocks ended 0.43 percent lower on Thursday on profit-taking and worries over China’s further monetary tightening, analysts said. The local currency dropped against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 9.03 percent to 2,106.66, retreating from an all-time high of 2,115.69 a day earlier. Trading volume was moderate at 328.8 million shares worth ...

China Merchant Bank expected to boost Korean group’s expansion Hana Financial Group has established a strategic partnership with China Merchant Bank, the country’s sixth-largest lender, beefing up ammunition for its planned portfolio diversification and expansion of China operations. The Korean financial group said Tuesday that the agreement will involve cooperation on a range of joint financia...

Kookmin Bank is accelerating its major manpower restructuring, transferring 219 underperforming employees to an extra department designed for retraining. A certain portion of them will likely face dismissal or be pressured to quit if they fail to reach a certain level of performance within about two years, an official of the nation’s largest bank said Tuesday. The employees at the department ar...

NTS to focus on paper companies being used to evade tax, hide money The National Tax Service on Monday vowed to toughen its crackdown on offshore tax evasion by wealthy persons and large businesses as one of its priorities this year. The tax authority said it will step up curbs on borrowed-name financial transactions often used by companies to manipulate their incomes. It will also enhance the ...

Korean companies’ direct financing shrank 10.4 percent in December from a month earlier due to a drop in corporate bond sales, the financial regulator said Monday. Local firms raised a total of 9.4 trillion won ($8.4 billion) through sales of stocks and bonds last month, compared with 10.5 trillion won in November, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a report. The decline came due t...