Banks saw their net profit soar 60.4 percent in 2014 from a year ago, largely resulting from the reduced provision of bad loans, the financial authorities said Friday. The combined net income of 18 banks operating here stood at 6.2 trillion won ($5.7 billion) in 2014, up 3.9 trillion won from a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service reported. The financial watchdog said the lenders’ provision of bad loans dropped to 8.9 trillion won last year, down 24.9 percent on-year from 11.9 trillio

A KRX official monitors the tech-heavy KOSDAQ on Thursday. (Yonhap)The tech-heavy Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations index broke the 600 mark for the first time in six years on expectations of strong growth among small and medium tech enterprises.The KOSDAQ finished at 600.81, up 2.58, or 0.43 percent. The tech index had been trapped below the 600 threshold since the index hit 602.74 on June 26, 2008. The country’s benchmark KOSPI closed at 1,952.84, down 9.95 or 0.51 percent.The KOS

The Korea Forest Service, the state-run afforestation agency, on Thursday called for more Korean corporate investment into the forestation business in foreign countries.  Korean pulp manufacturer Korindo Group’s lush forest plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia (Korea Forest Service) Lumber woods at Korean energy firm Eagon Corp.’s forest plantation in the Solomon Islands (Korea Forest Service)Forests take up about 31 percent of the world’s land, yielding raw material, energy resources, food and f

South Korean workers stack bags of rice. (Yonhap)Korea is expected to see an oversupply of rice this year due to a five-year high in output and a continued fall in demand, officials said Monday.The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said the self-sufficiency rate for rice would likely reach 97 percent in 2015. The ministry data showed that the country’s overall output of rice jumped 0.3 percent from a year ago, to some 4.24 million tons in 2014. The nation also has to import at leas

“Superfood” is not a scientific term. It is a marketing term for nutrient-rich food and a growing number of food-makers and restaurants are adopting the word in their sales and marketing strategies. Korea’s top hotel restaurants and food franchises agree that true superfoods share something more than just nutrition. While this year’s superfoods are not necessarily “better” than those of a decade ago, they are seasonal, fresh, and preferably grown locally. Locally grown fresh seaweed and shellfis

Steve R. DyerJapan Tobacco International named Steve R. Dyer as the new general manager of its Korean operation, JTI Korea said Wednesday. The South African-born executive will take over the helm on Feb. 1, succeeding his Greek predecessor Anastasios Sitsas, who resigned a month ago, citing personal matters. For the past 18 years, Dyer has accumulated experience in many regions including Tanzania and East Africa, Switzerland, Russia and Hong Kong, being promoted to the Asia-Pacific regional head

Ethiopian government officials are studying Korea’s farm policy and know-how in securing food reserves efficiently, Seoul officials said Tuesday.The African country dispatched a delegation of high-profile officials to Korea, seeking inputs to deal with food security issues, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.The eight-member delegation, led by Mirafe Marcos, chief of staff of the Agricultural Transformation Agency, and Misrak Mamo, director general of the Strategic

The government forecast that the additional quantitative easing by the European Central Bank would have a limited impact on the nation’s economy, saying the measure was within market expectations.“The ECB’s expansive monetary policies are part of (the BOK’s) forecasts,” Bank of Korea chief Lee Ju-yeol said in a breakfast meeting with commercial bank chiefs in Seoul on Friday. “If the measure had diverted from market forecasts, there would have been a shock,” the central bank chief added. There i

Moon Kwang-chan (right), the head of KEB’s Amsterdam branch, shakes hands with Joseph Giarraputo, the publisher and cofounder of Global Finance, at an award ceremony in Amsterdam on Wednesday. (KEB)The Korea Exchange Bank won a trade financing award from U.S. magazine Global Finance, bank officials said Thursday. The New York-based monthly finance magazine named KEB Best Trade Finance Bank in Korea for the 14th time, in recognition of its superior performance in terms of transaction size, market

The government will lower the bar for tie-in sales with insurance for certain products, financial authorities said on Tuesday. At present, all insurance consultants are required to take an examination to obtain their license. However, starting July next year, insurance consultants within a select group of industries will be exempt from taking the examination, and will be able to sign up customers. These industries include the retailers of electronic appliances, real estate agencies and travel ag

Woori Bank said Monday it would partially compensate individual investors’ losses on the controversial Picity trust fund, offering to buy back the product to end disputes.Under arbitration by the Financial Supervisory Service, the bank consented to compensate 40 percent of the investors’ net losses, while denying the investors’ claims that the bank failed to inform them about the risks involved. “In the settlement, we were suggested to compensate 40 percent of the investor losses, in addition to

Koreans consumed coffee more often than locally produced white rice and the traditional side dish kimchi in 2013, according to a joint study by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. on Friday.People drank coffee 12.2 times on average per week, while eating kimchi 11.9 times and Korean white rice 6.9 times a week. That is, the average Korean drank coffee twice a day, but ate locally grown white rice only about once a day, the report

The nation’s top financial regulator plans to expand the exemption of guarantee requirements for start-ups to support fledgling firms.The Financial Services Commission is considering whether to ease regulations on investment limits to revitalize the KONEX market that opened in 2013 to facilitate financing for start-ups and small companies. The K-OTC, which deals with the trading of non-listed shares, will also open a second market in March for the trading of small venture firms’ stocks.The FSC r

Shinhan Financial Group chairman Han Dong-woo said Thursday that he wanted visible achievements in its overseas operations, declaring 2015 a year of “action.”The chairman vowed to continue pursuing last year’s six core goals: internalization of hearty finance, a profit jump through creative finance, differentiation of postretirement business, pioneering unchartered overseas markets, innovative management of business channels and strategic cost-cutting.  Shinhan Financial Group chairman Han Dong-

The International Monetary Fund said it was unable to carry out an independent stress test to assess the country’s financial market stability due to the lack of available government data. While the IMF showed positive evaluation on Korea’s handling of the global financial crisis by “robust policy measures,” the international body also lashed at the Korean financial authorities for not turning in raw data that were requested to assess the country’s financial stability. “The (IMF’s) Financial Sect

South Korea launched on Monday its first emission rights exchange at the Korea Exchange’s Busan headquarters amid growing concerns among participating companies.The trading has been established to combat climate change by allocating emission permits to companies according to their emission history. Firms whose carbon emissions exceed or come under the permitted amount can trade the rights. The state-supported trade, monitored by the Korea Exchange, has been a bone of contention between the gover

Skepticism is growing over the government’s growth target this year as an increasing number of experts are dismissing the figure as unwarranted optimism.The Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Sunday reaffirmed its previous forecast of 3.8 percent growth this year, citing positive economic indicators globally. “The (South Korean) economy is expected to achieve a 3.8 percent growth this year, with the recovering global economy, falling oil price and investment-friendly policies deemed to fuel the

The country’s finance industry suffered its largest job losses in five years last year, state researchers said in a report released Wednesday. In last year’s January-November period, the average number of jobs in the finance industry fell to 840,000, down 2.8 percent from a year ago, according to the report by Statistics Korea.About 24,000 jobs vanished from the financial sector, dragging its share of the nations jobs to down 3.13 percent. This is the largest job loss since 2009, when about 55,0

Korea’s emission rights trading system will launch next week at the Busan headquarters of the Korea Exchange, the state-run bourse said Tuesday. The carbon derivative market will open Jan. 12, with the trading and payment service operated by the KRX. The trading hours will be from 10 a.m. to noon. Only the 525 companies approved by the Ministry of Environment are entitled to engage in trading. During the initial stage from 2015 to 2017, companies under the emission target will receive carbon all

The size of shadow banking in Korea doubled in five years, according to data released by the Swiss-based global monitoring body Financial Stability Board on Monday.The value of the shadow banking industry, which mainly refers to nonbank financial intermediaries that provide services similar to traditional banks under less strict regulatory oversight, reached about $1.47 trillion in 2013, or 113.4 percent of the country’s GDP, the FSB said. Following the subprime meltdown in 2008 and the global f