South Korea’s local court has decided that the employees of Samsung Securities involved in the “fat finger” scandal in which nonexistent stocks were issued, should pay compensation for about half of the damage they caused the company.The Seoul Central District Court has recently ruled that the 13 employees of the local brokerage must compensate $4.7 billion won ($4 million) of the losses they caused the company by selling nonexistent stocks, officials said Wednesday.The company

South Korea’s government on Tuesday adopted a disputed presale price cap system on privately built apartments, extending its efforts to stabilize the bubble-prone real estate market here.With the forthcoming price regulation expected to take effect as early as this month, local builders are hastening to sell their newly built apartments.The Cabinet, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki, passed five legislative bills and 24 presidential decrees, including the en

South Korea has seen its female employment index improve steadily over the past 10 years, but continues to struggle with gender equality when it comes to parental leave and consequent career breaks, data showed Monday.Unlike in most developed economies which tend to see the employment rate of women in their 40s peak and start declining in the 50s, Korea has seen women in their late 30s and early 40s -- the prime age for childbirth and childcare -- being pushed out of the labor market. All seven

A local equity fund, which gained recognition for President Moon Jae-in’s investment, has achieved an earnings rate three times higher than the industry average.NH-Amundi Asset Management said through a release Sunday that its NH-Amundi Victorious Korea Equity Fund logged a 3.88 percent return rate over the past month, Friday.The average return of equity funds here stood at 1.28 percent as of this month, according to financial information vender FN Guide. The given research was conducted o

Concerns are mounting that the central bank’s latest base rate cut may encourage easy borrowing and aggravate the country’s household debt problem.But others suggest that the government’s enhanced loan regulations and slow economic growth pace will help prevent reckless borrowing.The total balance of household credit as of the end of June this year stood at 1,556.1 trillion won ($1,318 billion), according to data released by the Bank of Korea on Sunday.Household credit is a com

The International Monetary Fund has forecast this year’s global economic growth rate at 3 percent, the lowest since the 2008 financial crisis, Seoul’s Ministry of Economy and Finance said Tuesday.It also lowered the outlook for South Korea to 2 percent, slashing 0.6 percentage point from its earlier outlook, data showed.In its World Economic Outlook Update, the IMF said that the world economy will grow 3 percent in 2019 and 3.4 percent in 2020.Its latest estimate is down 0.3 percenta

Viva Republica, operator of mobile money transfer service Toss, said Tuesday that its consortium has applied for a business license to establish a new internet-only bank, making its second attempt this year.Its shot at winning is seen as more plausible this time, especially as the previous main rival -- a consortium led by brokerage Kiwoom Securities -- renounced its own bid. “We pioneered Korea’s fintech industry through Toss. Now, through Toss Bank, we plan to build a new internet-

The government plans to eliminate various regulations that hinder the development of new technologies and overseas expansion of local firms amid the recent economic uncertainties, South Korea’s top financial policymaker said Monday.It is proposed to allow overseas affiliates of securities companies to take loans from Korean lenders, simplify the screening procedures for chemical facilities, and alleviate the authentication of certified industrial robots. “(The government) will lead t

South Korean business executives, policymakers and opinion leaders on Friday attended The Korea Herald’s second annual business forum to address the growing corporate risks in today’s business environment. This year’s forum was held at The Shilla Seoul under the theme “Korea in crisis: How to survive in an era of trade wars and industrial risks.” It took place amid slowing global economic growth and mounting uncertainties, including US-China trade tension and Ja

The average sale price of real estate in redeveloped apartment complexes in Seoul has soared more than 50 percent over the past four years, data showed Monday.According to data submitted by the state-run Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation to the parliamentary land committee, the average sale price per pyeong for reconstructed apartments stood at 31.5 million won ($26,345) as of this year. A pyeong is a unit of area used in real estate measuring, equivalent to 3.3 square meters. This

South Korea marked the steepest drop in export volume so far this year among the world’s top 10 exporters, data showed.Korea’s export slowdown was especially noticeable in July, due partly to the slowdown in overall world trade volume and the drop in prices of semiconductors and petroleum products. Exports to China, in particular, dropped significantly by 16.6 percent from the previous month.  The month coincides with when Japan started to impose export curbs on key materials cr

The Ministry of Economy and Finance has disputed a Bloomberg column that accused the Moon Jae-in administration’s inclusive growth policies as “socialist,” officials said Wednesday.Bloomberg on Monday posted a letter to the editor, written by Seoul’s First Vice Minister Kim Yong-beom in response to an earlier column titled “What’s worse than corrupt billionaires? Socialism.”The original column by Shuli Ren, an opinion columnist covering Asian markets, ap

South Korea saw its inflation drop for the first time in September due to weakened demand and decreased prices of agricultural and petroleum products, government data showed Tuesday.Though the latest figures rekindled concerns on long-term deflation and speculations on an imminent rate cut, policymakers argued that recent fluctuations were only temporary. Consumer prices slipped 0.4 percent in September from a year earlier, marking the first on-year decrease in inflation since the related data w

Korea Development Bank said Monday that it has begun the sale procedure for KDB Life Insurance, aiming to select a preferred bidder within the year and complete the sale by early next year.This marks the fourth attempt for the state-run bank to put its insurance unit on the market in a midterm restructuring move.KDB put up the public notice of sale on Monday, selecting Credit Suisse and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers as deal supervisors and Lee & Ko as the legal adviser. Performing the du

South Korea saw its production, consumption and investment rise last month, on the back of the launch of Samsung’s flagship smartphones and increased imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, government data showed Monday.This marked the first time in five months that all three industrial indexes climbed simultaneously but also came amid stalled exports and mounting external uncertainties.According to monthly industrial figures compiled by Statistics Korea, the industrial productio

The chief of South Korea’s central bank recognized the country’s challenges in achieving its modest 2.2 percent economic growth pace target for this year, but denied the possibility of deflation.While vowing to maintain the current monetary easing policy moves, he also stressed the need to stay “data dependent,” refraining from asserting the economic outlook for the second half and next year.“As major economies further ease their monetary policies, the concerns on g

Responding to stricter requirements for data protection, law firm Yoon & Yang co-hosted a related seminar with regulatory insight provider MLex this week. The event, titled “Data Protection Regulations in Korea and EU,” was held Tuesday at the headquarters of Yoon & Yang, the country’s sixth-largest law firm both in size and sales.MLex is a news organization affiliated with LexisNexis, specialized in regulatory risks. It has a global network of more than 80 regulatory r

Despite continued policy measures to steady the overheated real estate market, the overall prices of top-tier apartments are surging, government data showed Wednesday.According to data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, South Korea’s most expensive apartment as of last month was Hannam The Hill. One of the units of this premium apartment located in Hannam-dong, central Seoul, was valued at 8.4 billion won ($7 million) in January this year.The corresponding data

The state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said Sunday it will be holding an extensive Korea-India business forum this week, in line with Seoul’s initiative to expand beyond its conventional trade partners.Co-hosted by the Korean Embassy in India and the Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy, the event is to focus on the “3P” values of people, peace and prosperity, officials said. Some 540 companies and 800 individuals are expected to attend the affiliated se

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles to look into the weakening of the global economic framework in light of the fading liberalism and rise of trade protectionism and nationalism. This is the third installment. -- Ed.The liberal world order, or at least the belief that it could be sustained, has lasted for much of the 20th century, but is likely to fade away amid the rise of nationalism and protectionism across the world.This regression to state-centered policies naturally drove a