Businesses and individual borrowers in South Korea voiced criticism on Thursday over the central bank’s decision to raise its key interest rate for the first time in 15 months, due to a possible increase in their debt burdens. In an effort to counter growing inflationary pressure and household debt, the Bank of Korea hiked its key rate by 0.25 percentage point to 0.75 percent. The move is likely to exacerbate debt-servicing burdens, particularly for the self-employed and small business

  Financial Services Commission Chairman nominee Koh Seung-beom expressed skepticism on Wednesday over the value of cryptocurrency as a financial asset, confirming his tone in line with the regulator’s move to tighten its grip on local crypto exchanges. “International organizations, including the Group of 20 and the International Monetary Fund, as well as a lot of market experts, find it difficult to consider virtual currencies as a financial asset, and think they could not f

Soaring food prices have pushed South Korea’s low-income families to spend more on food, fueling an increase in the number of households running a deficit, data showed Monday.  According to data from the Korean Statistical Information Service, monthly expenditures on food and nonalcoholic beverages by households in the lowest income quintile, or the bottom 20 percent, stood at 244,000 won ($208) on average, during the second fiscal quarter, up 12 percent from a year earlier. 

Park Seol-min, 28, half-jokingly tells his friends that he bought a 10-square-meter plot in the wealthy Gangnam area of Seoul for less than 40,000 won ($34). As you might expect, given that apartments in the area trade for more than 30 million won per square meter, there’s a catch: The plot only exists in a virtual, computerized world.  Park is one of a growing number of “virtual homeowners,” who spend real money on real estate in metaverse platforms such as Earth 2, w

South Korea’s financial watchdog has called on second-tier banks to tighten lending standards on their extension of personal unsecured loans, as part of a move to curb ballooning household debt, industry sources said Sunday. The Financial Supervisory Service had sent a message to the Korea Federation of Savings Banks on Friday urging its member companies, including savings banks and mutual financial cooperatives, to keep the maximum amount of credit loans allowed for individuals below th

The level of national conflicts in South Korea ranked third among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, raising calls for government efforts to strengthen its conflict management capacity, a report showed Thursday.  According to a report by the Federation of Korean Industries, a major business lobbying group here, Seoul’s comprehensive conflict index presenting scores running from zero to 100, stood at 55.1 as of August. It was the third highest amo

Amid the steady growth of property ownership by foreign nationals in South Korea, Chinese acquisition of real estate ranked first for the ninth consecutive year, industry data showed Tuesday. According to data from real estate app company Zigbang, foreign-owned real estate accounted for 0.69 percent of the total property purchases across the nation, as of August, continuing an upward trend from 2010, when it posted 0.2 percent. Among the foreign buyers, Chinese purchased the largest volume of

The South Korean government will increase supplies of key fruits and vegetables from its stockpiles to stabilize market prices ahead of the Chuseok holiday set for Sept. 20-22, First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said Friday. “Prices of agricultural, livestock and fisheries products, which advanced 9.6 percent in July, continued a downward trend for a fifth consecutive month, but the figure still remained at a high level on the back of bird flu outbreaks coupled with an increase in

NH NongHyup Bank said Thursday it has launched a branch office in London to make inroads into the UK’s banking industry, as part of the lender’s overseas business strategies aimed at expanding its global presence.  “It is meaningful that (NH NongHyup Bank) has entered the UK market, Europe‘s major global finance center and the birthplace of financial cooperatives, in 2021, which marks its 60th anniversary. We will speed up efforts to become a global cooperative b

  South Korea’s top financial regulator on Wednesday encouraged local financial institutions to refrain from penalizing individual borrowers who have missed mortgage payments due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, but caught up later. Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo advised the heads of financial institutions -- including the Korea Federation of Banks, the Korea Credit Information Services and the Korea Federation of Savings Banks -- not to s

Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo on Tuesday called on the heads of five major banking groups here to ramp up efforts to curb snowballing household debt.  “A steep increase in household debt was inevitable for the real economy to minimize the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the growth pace of household debt has been too rapid, raising calls for tighter household debt control measures,” Eun said during a meeting held with chairmen from KB Fin

The government‘s plan to bring loan products under one platform by October to help consumers easily compare the options available is facing headwinds from traditional banks and their tech rivals in the wake of their already intensifying competition to gain the upper hand in digital financing. The “mobile-based loan exchange platform” pushed by the policymaking Financial Services Commission since January is a mobile application, whereby debtors can browse the number of availab

South Korea’s food price inflation in the second quarter ranked the third highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, data showed Sunday.  The prices for groceries and nonalcoholic beverages surged by 7.3 percent on-year in the April-June quarter, the fastest gain since 2011, when food prices rose 7.8 percent in the same period, according to data compiled by the OECD and Statistics Korea. Far above the OECD average of 1.6 percent, this on-ye

　 　 Facing tougher social distancing measures over a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, South Korea’s small-enterprise owners are struggling to make ends meet, resorting to laying off employees or borrowing money from banks, data showed Thursday.  The country had 5.58 million self-employed people registered as of June, accounting for 20.2 percent of the total 27.6 million employed workers in the same month, the smallest proportion in nearly 39 years, according to data compiled by the Ko

Seoul-based consulting firm KPMG Samjong on Wednesday urged local financial firms to accelerate their sustainable corporate management through business strategies focused on environmental, social and governance factors, or ESG.  “To enhance corporate values, local financial institutions should integrate ESG values into their business processes, ranging from strategy making to risk management,” KPMG Samjong said in its report.  “For instance, while improving gover

Taking impact from the panic buying trend in the local real estate market as well as explosive interest in a series of mega initial public offerings, South Korea’s household debt surged at a rapid pace in July.  Household debt gained more than 6 trillion won ($5.2 billion), despite government measures to tighten bank lending, industry data showed Tuesday.  The outstanding balance of household debt -- the total of financial loans plus credit card-based payment services extend

Global credit appraiser Fitch Ratings on Monday raised NH NongHyup Bank’s long-term credit rating from A- to A, in recognition of its leading position in the local banking industry, while keeping the firm’s outlook at stable.  “As of last year, about 12 percent and 14 percent of the total credit loan applications and savings programs operated by local commercial banks were made through NH NongHyup Bank, respectively. The latest upgrade reflects the bank’s possibi

Nationwide apartment transactions plunged in June ahead of the launch on Wednesday of a subscription program for newly built homes, which put the brakes on a buying spree in the local real estate market, data showed Friday.  According to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, a total of 88,922 apartment units changed hands across the nation last month, down 35.8 percent from 138,578 a year earlier.  In the Greater Seoul area, the transaction volume fell 44.

Global credit appraiser Fitch Ratings has raised Woori Bank’s long-term credit rating from A- to A in consideration of its sound business performance, the bank said Friday.  The rating agency had maintained the lender’s long-term credit rating at A- for 16 years since 2005. The latest upgrade reflects the company’s efforts to improve risk management skills, asset soundness, profitability and capital adequacy, which has led to a significant increase in earnings, it expl

The Bank of Korea said Thursday that a decision by the US Federal Reserve that left its benchmark rate unchanged had little impact on global financial markets. The central bank still added caution, saying that “financial market volatility could intensify as uncertainty remains over when major economies recover from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic as well as virus variants. “The BOK will closely monitor internal and external risk factors and review countermeasures against them.&rdq