South Korea’s tech giant Kakao and financial giant Shinhan are set to launch online- and mobile-only insurers by next month to attract millennial and Generation Z customers with affordable and simple products. Kakao’s mobile payment arm, Kakao Pay, is slated to launch its first general insurance unit called Kakao Pay Insurance in July, adding competition to the online-only insurance market here currently dominated by three existing insurers – Kyobo Life Planet, Hana Insurance

President Yoon Suk-yeol’s nominations to lead the nation’s top financial regulators have been met with skepticism, as critics say there have been too many prosecutors named already. Yoon, who has appointed several former prosecutors as Cabinet members, appointed an ex-prosecutor to lead the Financial Supervisory Services on Tuesday. Another former prosecutor had been mentioned as a candidate to head the Fair Trade Commission the same day. But the president’s office tweaked th

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday named Bang Moon-kyu, CEO of the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea, to be in charge of government policy coordination, and former prosecutor Lee Bok-hyun to lead Korea’s market watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Service. The president also appointed Kim Joo-hyun, chairman of the Credit Finance Association as chairman of the Financial Services Commission, a top financial policymaking unit, and Kang Seog-hoon, former presidential secretary for economi

Major foreign investment banks have revised down their targets and ratings on South Korea’s benchmark Kospi, which has been coping with market volatilities stemming from growing inflationary pressure and the prolonged Russia-Ukraine War. Japan-based Nomura Securities lowered its investment rating on the Korean market from “overweight” to “neutral” last week, suggesting investors to hold and not buy shares. Nomura cited the recent slowdown in the expansion of the

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo and the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s Deputy Minister Garry Grimstone discussed partnership in achieving net-zero carbon emissions and green investment, the South Korean bank said Friday. In the meeting held Friday, Grimstone called for KB’s active cooperation with UK businesses in investment of renewable energy, according to the firm. He noted the growing importance of renewable energy in achieving the join

KB Financial Group said Friday it had produced and launched a video highlighting the impact of the declining bee population on the environment for the upcoming World Environment Day. The video titled “Warning of the Bees” portrays how climate change and excessive exposure to pesticides threaten the existence of bees, as well as the alarming consequences for humanity. It also paints the stories of people contributing to the effort to revive the bee population. The video is part o

South Korean brokerages’ yearslong plan to launch the first alternative trading system here has entered a new phase, with more companies expressing support and the exchange’s ownership structure getting clearer, media reports said Thursday. According to local reports, 30 small- and medium-sized brokerages have expressed willingness for the first time to use the ATS, if launched, to the ATS task force. The task force is led by the Korea Financial Investment Association, a self-regu

Housing-related expenditures such as rent, water, electricity and gas accounted for the largest part of a single-person households’ spending in South Korea, government data showed Wednesday. For the first three months of this year, single-person households spent a monthly average of 300,000 won ($241.74) on housing-related expenditures, accounting for 20.5 percent of their total average monthly spending, a Statistics Korea data showed. Their total average monthly spending came to 1.46 mil

Four people have been arrested for scamming a total 1.7 billion won ($1.3 million) out of investors who transferred money on a fake cryptocurrency exchange, South Korean police said Tuesday. The four, recently taken into police custody, are suspected of operating the fake crypto exchange that tricked investors into thinking they were actually trading coins and gold. More than 20 investors saw losses after the scammers told them they were unable to return their investments due to the coins&rsquo

Terraform Labs, the Singapore-based company behind the troubled coins terraUSD and luna, had shut down its South Korean branch last year to allegedly evade paying taxes, local news reports showed Monday. Reports also found that the company technically dissolved its South Korean branch months before the shutdown was officially announced. Despite recent court documents showing the blockchain company’s decision to officially shut down its Korean branch through a shareholders meeting held Apr

Behind South Korea's rapid industrial growth was a military-like corporate culture that united workforces for a shared goal: the company's success and my family‘s well being. The mantra “your company is your family” propelled the tremendous drive toward economic prosperity but also gave validity to tough corporate culture and hierarchy. The decades-old corporate culture, however, is now being forced to change for a new generation of the workforce who finds daily 9-to-6 office h

South Korean authorities and major cryptocurrency exchanges are cranking up the heat on controversial “stablecoin” terraUSD and its sister luna over its price fall fiasco, with the prosecution launching a crackdown on the case, reports said Sunday. Major crypto exchanges here are planning to form a joint body that would help them counter crises like the collapse of the terraUSD and luna, which caused some 280,000 Korean investors to see almost $38 billion wiped out from their balanc

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.75 percent and hinted at further rate hikes to come to fend off the country’s highest inflation spike in 14 years. In the first rate-setting meeting presided by the new Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong, the six-member monetary policy board unanimously voted to carry out its fifth pandemic-era rate hike since August last year, when it decided to end 15 months of its record-l

Korbit, one of South Korea’s top four cryptocurrency exchanges, has decided to delist luna, the sister coin of controversial stablecoin terraUSD, on Wednesday, following in the steps of other top platforms such as Bithumb and Upbit. The decision comes a day after chiefs of major crypto exchanges here were criticized by lawmakers for their “uncoordinated” response towards the price fall fiasco of terraUSD and luna. The exchanges failed to coordinate when to delist luna, with

미국에서 출시될 예정인 한국 엔터테인먼트 주가를 추종하는 상장지수펀드인 ‘케이팝 (KPOP) ETF’ 가 추종하는 지수의 10%는 방탄소년단 소속사 하이브 주식으로 담기로 했다.  24일 한 업계 관계자는 코리아헤럴드와 만나 현재 해당 ETF의 지수 설계를 담당한 한국 콘텐츠 지식재산권 기업 콘텐츠 테크놀로지스가 구성 종목의 10%를 하이브 주식으로 편성할 것이라고 밝혔다.  관계자는 “해당 ETF는 패시브 ETF이기에 수익률을 달성하도록 운용하지만 그만큼 변동성이 적은 편이다”면서 “하이브 시총이 9조 정도지만 패시브 ETF로 운용되기 때문에  20-30% 대신 한도가 적용된 10%로 구성될 것”이라고 말했다.  케이팝 ETF는 미 증권거래위원회 (SEC)의 심사를 받고 있으며, 콘텐츠 테크놀로지스는 7월 상장을 목표로 하고 있다. 해당 ETF가 미 증권거래위원회의 승인을 받으

Chiefs of South Korea’s KB Financial Group and US’ Jefferies Financial Group discussed strengthening and expanding its existing partnership in the global investment banking market, the Korean banking giant said Tuesday. In a meeting with Jefferies Financial Group President Brian Friedman, KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo discussed plans to build a stronger cooperation in investment banking to expand assets tied to their alternative investment businesses under banks, securi

Shares of Hybe, the company behind K-pop sensation BTS, will account for some 10 percent of the much-anticipated KPOP ETF, an exchange-traded fund designed by Seoul-based intellectual property-focused company builder Contents Technologies, an industry source said Tuesday. “Hybe with its market cap standing at 8.9 trillion won ($7.1 million) is supposed to make up some 20 or 30 percent of the KPOP ETF, but with the product being a passive exchange traded-fund, there will be a cap putting i

New South Korean Land Minister Won Hee-ryong pledged Monday to announce measures to ease the cap on presale prices of privately built apartments, a scheme adopted by the previous Moon Jae-in administration widely criticized for failing to curb the housing prices here. “The scheme has been introducing side-effects to the market as it forcefully puts a cap on the presale prices when it doesn’t consider parts of maintenance cost or the rising raw materials cost,” Won said at a p

Taiwanese banking giant Fubon Financial on Friday raised its stake in South Korea’s Hyundai Card to nearly 20 percent, expanding its clout over management of the card issuer. Fubon Financial is now the card issuer’s third-largest shareholder with 19.98 percent after Hyundai Motor with 36.96 percent and Hyundai Commercial with 28.56 percent. Kia Corp. is the fourth-largest stakeholder with 11.48 percent. The latest announcement puts a final stamp on the exit of a consortium led by

Some 100,000 retail investors in South Korea each held over 100 million won ($78,000) in deposits at cryptocurrency exchanges here as of end-2021, government data showed Thursday, fueling concerns as the recent crash of Korean-made terraUSD and luna cryptocurrencies has decimated the value of digital assets. As of end-December last year, a total of 5.58 million investors were registered with local crypto exchanges, including those provide won-denominated and coin trading, according Financial S