The National Tax Service is probing the Korean unit of the German automaker group BMW, sources said Thursday. The NTS is scavenging evidence to back up suspicions of tax evasion by the best-selling imported automaker in Korea, they said. The investigators are expected to focus on whether BMW Korea tried to evade taxes by intentionally distorting the prices of its automobiles that are transported from BMW’s German headquarters.A BMW Korea spokesperson, however, stressed that the probe was only a

For years, companies have turned to celebrities to brighten up their brands. Now, banks are stepping up the trend, choosing their stars as wise investments.Banks are seeking out the sports and TV celebrities with particularly inspiring personal histories, such as figure skater Kim Yu-na, rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae and presenter Song Hae. “Trust and stability are the two things that a financial company wants to show, but rushing contracts with fancy stars without future potential can be a risk

KT&G has launched the world’s first ultra-slim, capsule-type cigarette, the country’s largest tobacco maker said Monday. Dubbed “Esse Change,” the product is the follow-up to the company’s best-selling ultra-slim cigarette “Esse,” which has been popular among young smokers in particular, KT&G said. One Esse Change comes with two different flavors, the company said. Its initial mild taste turns apple mint-fresh as the smoker pops the “capsule” inserted within the cigarette. “Esse Change is distin

As KB Financial Group picked Lim Young-rok as its new chairman on Wednesday, attention is being paid to who will head the nation’s No. 2 bank under the financial group.KB Kookmin Bank president and CEO Min Byong-deok offered to resign from the post after running unsuccessfully for the chairmanship.Currently, KB Kookmin Card CEO Choi Gi-eui, KB Financial Group vice president Yoon Jong-kyu and KB Kookmin Bank vice president Kim Ok-chan are the strongest candidates for the top post, bank sources sa

Nonghyup Financial Group said Thursday that the group has named former senior government official Lim Jong-ryong as its chairman.Lim’s chairmanship will go through final verification the following day at the board of directors’ meeting, the group said. Lim, 54, served as the vice minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in April 2010, before leading the Prime Minister’s Office from September 2011. Despite concerns about the group’s general exclusiveness for outsiders, NongHyup Financial

For Oriental Brewery Co., October 2011 is a month the nation’s No.1 beer maker cannot forget: It recaptured the title of top brewery by finally edging out its archrival Hite Jinro, which dominated the beer market for about 15 years.Behind OB’s success, company officials agree, was an aggressive marketing push by CEO Jang In-soo, who was nicknamed by news media the “master of sales.” Speaking in an interview with The Korea Herald last week, the 58-year-old CEO picked his “communication” with sale

Ewha Womans University graduates made up a significant share of graduate workers at foreign companies in Korea, a recent survey has indicated.Korea Foreign Company Employee’s Human Network, an online association of employees of foreign companies here founded in 1999, recently surveyed some 6,500 of its members.The online club said that 320 of its members, or about 5.6 percent of the survey participants, were Ewha alumni. Korea University won second place with 5.2 percent, followed by Yonsei Univ

The nation’s top financial regulator decided to issue an institutional warning against Woori Bank for its failure to properly monitor a withdrawal of a large amount of money from the bank, sources said on Sunday.The Financial Services Commission will punish the bank and its executive as the lender failed to follow a regulation calling for a mandatory report to financial authorities about a withdrawal of 300 million won or more, the sources said.Former Mirae Savings Bank chairman Kim Chan-kyung,

Financial Services Commission chairman Shin Je-yoon has reaffirmed that the government will find a new owner for Woori Financial Group by 2014.The FSC chief picked the much-disputed privatization of Woori Financial Group as his do-or-resign financial agenda. “Our plan at this point is to fix the new owner by the end of 2014, although we may need more time for the rest of the legal paperwork,” Shin told reporters on Saturday.He stressed that the sale of Woori Financial was currently “headed towar

Businessman Kim Seok-ki and his wife and actress Yoon Suk-hwa have been included on the list of those who established paper companies in tax havens, a local journalists’ group said Thursday.The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit organization also known as Newstapa, released five names ― three businessmen, a university president and an actress ― in its third announcement of the list of Koreans with offshore financial accounts allegedly to operate slush funds or evade taxes. Th

Shinhan Bank’s family-targeted promotions have been increasing in popularity among customers, contributing to its sales growth.Shinhan sold about 1,400 of its “Shinhan Baby Plus Installment Savings” plans, raking in about 5 billion won ($4.4 million) in the past year. “The sales performance for the Baby Plus promotion is constantly growing. Baby Plus is designed to boost the birthrate and support prospective and current mothers,” a Shinhan Bank spokesperson said. The 12-month-maturity installmen

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co. is under fire for reporting to regulators a massive leak of customers’ personal data three months after the fact. The insurance firm went through a massive leak of personal data of some 164,000 clients back in February, which went unreported to state regulator Financial Supervisory Service until Tuesday. The company issued a public statement and online apology about the delayed report the next day.“It was hard to understand how a case so severe got to us so lat

The Seoul International Dispute Resolution Center opened on Monday to help local and foreign companies operating in Korea settle international business disputes, officials said.The Korea Commercial Arbitration Board, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, lawyers and nonprofit organizations joined together to establish the IDRC.KCBA officials said the new arbitration hearing center was established to promote Korea as the East Asian hub of international law as well as its advanced environment for glo

Financial Services Commission chairman Shin Je-yoon on Friday told the country’s financial group heads on Friday that the government would try to develop the financial industry by boosting sales of value-added products.Outlining a 10-year project, Shin said the country aimed to increase the relative weight of the financial industry to 10 percent of the country’s overall economic output.The participants in the meeting included Financial Supervisory Service head Choi Soo-hyun, KB Financial Group c

Korea’s antitrust regulator announced Thursday that it imposed $1 million (1.15 billion won) in fines on foreign plant engineering firms and their bid brokers over price-fixing to win bids.According to the Fair Trade Commission, two foreign plant engineering firms and two bidding brokers breached competition laws to win overseas deals from a large Korean construction company.The four players are Pall Korea Ltd of U.S.-based Pall Corporation, Germany-based Dahlman Industrial Group, IPEG ENG Ltd.

OCI chairman Lee Soo-young, former Korean Air vice chairman’s wife Lee Young-hak and DSDL chairman Cho Wook-rae are included on the list of 245 Koreans suspected of creating bogus companies in overseas tax havens.Disclosing the list at a news conference on Wednesday, Kim Yong-jin, head of the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, said Lee of OCI admitted to the KCIJ about managing such accounts through paper companies. Lee told the KCIJ that the fund merely amounts to some hundreds of thous

Hana Bank and the Korea Exchange Bank under the Hana Financial Group are stepping up their cooperation in their overseas joint social contributions.In Indonesia, the two banks joined hands to cook and hand-deliver 500 food boxes to households in poor areas in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The Indonesian offices of Hana Bank and KEB came up with the food box run, which closely resonates with “served-hot meal donations,” which has been Koreans’ signature social charity activity. In the proces

Korea and New Zealand started negotiations to conclude a free trade agreement in 2009. But there has been little progress due to differences over certain issues, including Korean farmers’ concern about increased competition.Nevertheless, the head of New Zealand’s trade office in Korea expressed eagerness for a high level free trade agreement with Korea at an early date.“An FTA with Korea will increase trade in both directions. A free trade agreement between New Zealand and Korea is of major impo

INCARINSU, the nation’s top insurance brokerage company, said it was aiming to sell 400 billion won ($350 million) in insurance products for this year.“We will raise the goal to 600 billion won next year, and we will do our best to ensure transparency and corporate ethics throughout our 2 trillion won goal for 2020,” company CEO Choi Byung-chae said. The insurer currently has some 950 branches and about 4,000 sales dealers nationwide. INCARINSU has won awards for job creation, and recently recru

Korea’s corporate debt is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2017 as non-financial firms increasingly issue debt and take out loans to service their obligations, a report by Standard & Poor’s said Sunday. This would lead debt to account for 122 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, or to the level seen in 2009, raising concern over Korea’s business fundamentals.S&P noted that it is generally dangerous for the corporate debt-GDP ratio to surpass 90 percent.Non-financial firms’ debt amoun