Stricter jeonse loan regulations will be imposed starting from Friday, the nation’s financial regulator said Wednesday, adding more pressure on the real estate market as it already faces a series of measures set to curb soaring housing prices. The latest version restricts jeonse loan guarantees and bans loan requests by buyers who already own a house in high speculation areas.  The move came in line with the 21st set of housing price regulations imposed under the Moon Jae-in admini

South Korea’s top financial regulator Tuesday vowed to induce fair competition between conventional financial companies and Big Tech groups, in preparation for the forthcoming digital shift in the local financial industry. “Responding to the non-face-to-face trend triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak, a growing number of major technology companies, or Big Tech, have been pursuing (new opportunities) from the financial services industry,” said Financial Services Commission Chair

The number of open banking service subscriptions in Korea has surpassed 20 million, more than 70 percent of the nation’s economically active population, reflecting rapid expansion across the finance sector, authorities said Monday. Launched in December 2019, open banking services enable bank customers to use banking services of different banks via a single smartphone application. Currently there are a total of 72 service providers, including commercial banks and financial technology comp

South Korea will execute its third supplementary budget of 35.1 trillion won ($29.3 billion) on Monday as part of a move to minimize the economic impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said Sunday. The latest COVID-19 response budget, the single biggest spending in the country’s history, was approved by the National Assembly late Friday, surpassing the extra budget of 28.4 trillion won passed amid the 2009 global financial crisis.  Earlier i

South Korea’s top fiscal policymaker on Thursday urged Japan to show sincere efforts to lift export curbs and resolve a yearlong trade dispute between the Asian neighbors. “(South Korea) calls on the Japanese government to make efforts with a sincere attitude to normalize its export regulations targeting the nation,” said Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki during an economy-related ministerial meeting held at Seoul Government Complex. “The Korean government has stepped up ef

South Korea’s financial authorities said Wednesday they will ramp up their efforts to open up financial big data to local markets in an effort to nurture the industry here. Starting August, the Korea Credit Information Services, a pan-industry body tasked with data preservation and protection, will offer various information collected from nearly 50 million anonymous insurance consumers to both financial and nonfinancial companies via its online-based Financial Bigdata Open System, dubbed

South Korea’s top financial regulator Tuesday called on local lenders to build up their capital conservation buffer to absorb losses in preparation for the prolonged COVID-19 crisis. “(The FSC) urges banks to strengthen their loss-absorbing capacity through measures such as increasing allowances for bad debts, while continuing to help lending in the real economy amid the pandemic,” Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Sohn Byung-doo told a meeting of senior financial p

  NH NongHyup Bank said Monday that it will hire Lee Sang-rae, a former executive of Samsung SDS as its chief digital officer, a position that has been vacant for nearly six months. Lee, 56, is the first outsider to the bank to take a senior post. The lender launched a digital finance department in 2018. Having in 1991 joined Samsung SDS, the information and communication technology service arm of Samsung Electronics, Lee climbed the corporate ladder by serving senior posts at various de

South Korea’s financial regulator Monday urged financial institutions and tech companies to widen access to client information to foster personal credit information management services here, dubbed MyData. “To maximize customers interest, financial and ICT companies as well as fintech startups need to open up their data assets as much as possible,” said Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Sohn Byung-doo.  MyData refers to a business model that offers integrated

South Korea’s consumer sentiment rebounded for the second straight month in June, but was still far more pessimistic than the neutral view held at the beginning of the year, data showed Friday.  The Composite Consumer Sentiment Index, or CCSI, rose for the second consecutive month to 81.8, up 4.2 points on-month, according to data from the Bank of Korea. This was the highest level since it recorded 96.9 in February.  The CCSI is an economic indicator that measures consumers&r

Market concerns grew over a new tax plan on any financial investment, Thursday, with some criticizing that the scheme imposes a heavy burden on retail investors seeking small profits. The government unveiled a set of capital gains taxation of up to 25 percent on annual capital gains worth over 20 million won ($16,600) starting from 2023, while lowering the stock transaction tax.  With individuals expressing concerns online, a petition demanding the withdrawal of the new tax scheme on

The International Monetary Fund has forecast a contraction of 4.9 percent for the global economy in 2020, citing worse-than-expected economic outputs in the first quarter and a more pessimistic forecast for the second quarter, the Seoul government said Wednesday evening. The figure is down 1.9 percentage point from the earlier estimate in April.  In its World Economic Outlook Update, the IMF also expected that the South Korean economy will post a contraction of 2.1 percent this year, do

The South Korean government on Tuesday unveiled measures to slap sanctions on illegal private lenders to protect local financial consumers from related fraud.  The Financial Services Commission and relevant government agencies announced that they will compose a pangovernmental group to jointly implement countermeasures against illegal private lending here, which normally targets low-income and desperate families, charging high interest rates.  The move came as the country’s il

The combined spending by Korean financial institutions on social contributions hit a record high in 2019, data showed Tuesday.  A total of 22 financial institutions in Korea, including five major local lenders and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund as well as Korea Housing Finance Corp., spent 1.3 trillion won ($935 million) on social contribution activities last year, the highest figure since 2006 when the Korea Federation of Banks started compiling relevant data. The figure jumped 15 percent

　  South Korea is making all-out efforts to accelerate digital transformation in the financial sector, having launched a data exchange platform last month for convenient transactions.  From credit card transaction histories, spending trends in online shopping malls to transport payments, data processed for marketing and research purposes is now being traded without having to worry about security breaches, on FinDX.  FinDX is Korea’s first financial data exchange platfor

The level of household debt in Asia’s fourth-largest economy rose at the fastest pace among major economies in 2019, data showed Sunday.  According to the data from the Bank for International Settlements, household debt in South Korea accounted for 95.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product as of the fourth quarter last year, increased by 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier. The growth rate ranked first among 43 major economies alongside Hong Kong. Norway came

Six out of 10 accounts offered at commercial banks in South Korea offer near-zero interest rates on their deposits following the central bank’s key rate cut in May. According to data released Wednesday by the Korea Federation of Banks, 31 out of 51 commercial banks’ 12-month deposit accounts provided their customers with yields of less than 0.5 percent as of June. This indicates that 6 out of 10 major banks’ deposit products do not even offer 1 percent interest a y

　 Major foreign investment banks and institutions have revised their economic growth outlook for South Korea, data showed Tuesday.  According to the Korea Center for International Finance, nine foreign investment banks -- Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, HSBC, Nomura and UBS -- forecast that the local economy will contract by 0.4 percent this year on average, slightly improved from the minus 0.9 percent growth estimated in late Apr

The chief of South Korea’s central bank on Friday vowed all-out efforts to speed up the country’s economic recovery amid the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, raising the possibility of further monetary easing policies.  In a speech to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the central bank’s founding, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said monetary easing policies needed to be implemented until signs of an economic recovery appear.  To prompt credit flows in local financi

The Financial Services Commission said Thursday it will innovate the current personal identification system in a way that consumers can enjoy diverse authentication services other than face-to-face method when using financial services. “Most of the current ID verification measures in the financial sector are based on face-to-face system, which given rise to the need to diversify verification services,” Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo told the reporters during a