U.S. ambassador to Korea Sung Kim said South Korea is a safe and attractive business venue despite North Korea’s military threats.“The very fact that we are gathered here this evening to celebrate this anniversary of AMCHAM is sending a strong message that despite North Korea’s provocations, Korea is a safe and attractive place to do business,” he said in the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Tuesday evening. Leaders of the two countries’ busin

KB Financial Group chairman Euh Yoon-dae will share business views with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other global business tycoons at this year’s Microsoft CEO Summit in Seattle this week. Euh is the only Korean CEO to join the three-day global business networking hub in three consecutive years, the lender group said in a statement. Last year’s summit in 2012 involved discussion on solutions for the global economic slowdown by some 100 global business leaders including former British Prime Min

KB Financial Group and its major subsidiaries have set out to strengthen their global operations of community services for 2013.The nation’s leading financial group currently serves over 400,000 corporate clients and 26 million retail customers through a network of around 1,200 branches at home and abroad.It incorporated four key categories ― youth, global, environment and senior welfare ― to fulfill corporate social responsibilities.Back in November 2011, KB Financial launched a large-scale soc

A district court on Friday ruled in favor of semiconductor testing firm iTEST Co. in a lawsuit claiming Citibank Korea reaped unfair gains from transactions with the Korean company. The Seoul Central District Court decided that the Korean operation of multinational bank Citibank did not sufficiently notify iTEST, a listed tech firm, of the high risks of KIKO, or “knock-in knock-out,” a financial derivative product that is highly susceptible to exchange rate changes. The court ordered the bank to

KB Financial Group chairman Euh Yoon-dae on Thursday raised the possibility that Asian countries may experience a massive outflow of funds in the wake of some developed countries’ quantitative easing.His remarks come during the first day of the two-day summit of some 120 Asian financial leaders, dubbed the 2013 Institute of International Finance Asia CEO Summit, at the Westin Chosun Hotel in downtown Seoul.“Should developed countries unexpectedly adopt an exit strategy (from Asia) upon world eco

Some conglomerates’ financial woes and households’ growing difficulties in repaying debts are increasing local banks’ bad debt. The total sum of nonperforming loans from the country’s six largest banks has been snowballing, reaching 13.1 trillion won ($12 billion) as of the end of March, up 12.9 percent since December’s 11.6 trillion won. A nonperforming loan is one that appears unlikely or impossible to be repaid.The six banks ― Shinhan Bank, Hana Bank, Korea Exchange Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Woo

The Financial Supervisory Service has punished credit finance lender IBK Capital for leaking private information of its customers, FSS officials said Tuesday. The state financial regulator said it issued a 6 million won ($5,500) fine and individual cautions to two executives and three employees of the capital firm. The five are held responsible for exposing names and contact numbers of some 5,700 customers without consent in 2012, the FSS said. About 700 of these customers had their credit ratin

As the nation’s low interest rate has contracted their profits, Korean banks are targeting rich people in Southeast Asia and China as new income sources.Hana Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea are the frontrunners in the trend.Hana Bank launched its first Indonesian private banking center in Jakarta on May 2, in addition to its private banking centers in China and Hong Kong.The Jakarta center has one Korean manager with 10 years’ experience in private banking at home and is a certified financ

The nation’s financial authorities said on Wednesday that expatriates are equally eligible for the application for the “National Happiness Fund” recently set up to rescue individual credit defaulters.The relief plan is by principle entitled to all borrowers and lenders of this country, officials at the Financial Services Commission said. “When a foreign worker here loses his job, relies on debt, and his credit falls, he will need a debt relief plan, too,” said a FSC spokesperson. News reports sa

South Korea must work on stronger ties with Japan before discussing creative economy, French professor and columnist Guy Sorman said on Tuesday.Speaking at a meeting with a group of government policymakers and businesspeople in Seoul, he said, “South Korea needs to rebuild its ties with Japan. It’s absolutely necessary for the geopolitical stability of the region and for economic reasons.“It’s useless to talk about creative economy and added-cultural value, if the world around you is struggling,

Shinhan Financial Group announced a 483.3 billion won ($436.6 million) net profit during the first quarter of this year. It was a 41.8 percent drop from a year earlier and a 54.8 percent increase from a quarter earlier.The quarterly operating profit fell 10.1 percent from the previous quarter due to the increase in loan losses, Shinhan said. The overall weak quarterly performance occurred among Shinhan’s bank sectors, which almost halved to 341.5 billion won from a year ago, with the group holdi

Woori Investment & Securities Co. has launched its “Octo Global Installment-type Service,” which it touts as the fastest and easiest trading overseas stock service of its kind. The securities house has introduced the automatic trading service amid rising domestic popularity of trading overseas stocks and overseas exchange-traded funds.Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are a security that tracks an index, commodity or asset vehicles like an index fund, while trading on stock exchanges like a stock.

CHEONGJU, North Chungcheong Province ― “Spec” is a term used by Korean job seekers. It refers to highly thought of qualifications such as university name, grades, internships, awards and overseas experience. Many Korean students believe great specs are a must for promising jobs.Shin Ji-yoon, 23, an English major senior at Chungbuk National University, admitted that she was daunted by students from in and around Seoul ― her soon-to-be competitors in the job market. “It would be a lie to say that

The nation’s top tax official has sought to ease concerns among businesspeople about the government’s move to strengthen its tax monitoring of firms and vowed to support them with proper tax management.Speaking at a meeting with a group of enterprises organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday, National Tax Service Commissioner Kim Duk-joong also urged business circles to join its push for “clean taxation” polices. The meeting was organized to appease businesspeople who

Korea Exchange Bank, the nation’s fifth-largest lender, on Tuesday denied allegations that international hackers broke into its online security system to expose the personal details of bank customers. KEB made the statement after the list of what hackers claimed to be KEB customers’ confidential data was disclosed on their website, pastebin.com. “Our investigation results point to the fact that not a single piece of personal information or email address that was exposed by the hackers matches ou

Korean enterprises remitted about 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion) to tax havens such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Delaware state in the U.S. last year, data from the Bank of Korea showed Monday.A BOK official noted that the nation’s 30 major business groups including Samsung operate a combined 250 subsidiaries in tax havens.Several of the overseas units in such areas providing tax benefits are reportedly known as bogus firms with no business activities, allegedly established to raise offshore fundin

Bond owners who were victimized in the 2011-12 savings bank woes filed a group lawsuit against state-controlled Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. over the weekend, the Korea Finance Consumer Federation said Sunday. A total of 573 suitors submitted a class action suit against Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. to the Seoul Administrative Court, claiming severe loss on transaction-frozen deposits in the wake of the savings bank fiasco.Out of the lost 20 billion won, suitors claimed about 900 million won ($

Korea needs to implement more proactive policies and further open its market to boost foreign direct investment, foreign chambers said at an economic forum hosted by Herald Corp. in Seoul on Thursday.“Korea is a very unique country with an advanced economy and relatively high growth rate. There are various attributes that make Korea an attractive place to make investments,” said Henry An, cochairman of the American Chamber of Commerce’s taxation committee.But he added that the country should try

The country’s top financial regulator unveiled the direction for financial policies for the next five years during an economic policy forum held in central Seoul on Thursday.The revival of failed-but-restarting enterprises, pro-customer financial inclusion and a sound financial system are the new administration’s three major polivy priorities, said Ko Seung-bum, head of the financial policy department at the Financial Services Commission.In his presentation at the forum “Hear from the New Govern

Thai princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn plans to visit the Ochang factory of Korea’s leading pharmaceutical firm Green Cross in Cheongwon County, North Chungcheong Province, on Friday, company officials said.The company said the tour of Asia’s largest manufacturing facility of blood derivatives ― pharmaceutical products processed from human blood ― is scheduled for the last day of the princess’ four-day trip to Korea.Green Cross chairman Huh Il-sup, chief executive Rhee Byung-geon and Thai ambassad