South Korea’s top two financial regulators are set to go through leadership changes simultaneously, with longstanding bureaucrats being assigned to lead them Thursday. In an apparent attempt to win back public trust on dealing with economic woes before his term ends in May 2022, President Moon Jae-in tapped Koh Seung-beom, one of the Bank of Korea’s seven-member monetary policy board and a former Finance Ministry official, to lead the Financial Services Commission. Current FSC Ch

South Korea’s NH NongHyup Bank, which issues real-name accounts for two major cryptocurrency exchanges here – Bithumb and Coinone – asked them to halt deposit and withdrawal services until they adopt stronger money laundering regulations, reports said Wednesday. The commercial lender has reportedly requested the two exchanges to quicken its pace in adopting the “travel rule,” a global standard that requires virtual asset service providers to share the identities of

South Korea’s consumer prices gained a higher-than-expected 2.6 percent on-year in July, data showed Tuesday, with the government citing shortage of livestock and agriculture goods due to worsening climate condition as a key catalyst. The consumer prices grew at more than 2 percent for the fourth consecutive month in July, continuing to exceed the Bank of Korea’s 2 percent inflation target and hitting a record high since beginning of the year, according to Statistics Korea. The pri

Businesses and experts in export-reliant South Korea on Monday expressed concerns over the European Union and the United States’ moves to levy a carbon emissions tax on imported goods. Jitters came as the EU last month put forward plans for the world’s first carbon border tax, which would be levied on imports of goods from economies with laxer climate rules from 2026. US lawmakers then began floating plans of including the tariff as part of a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bil

South Korea‘s traditional banks are planning to expand online and mobile mortgage services this month in an apparent bid to gain an upper hand in the market against the fast-growing KakaoBank, which announced its plan to launch 100 percent online home loan services. Internet banks like KakaoBank and K Bank have gained popularity with contactless credit loan services but the mortgage market has so far occupied by traditional lenders, which still prefer to receive property-related document

South Korea plans invest over 5 trillion won ($4.3 billion) in semiconductors, biohealth and next-generation vehicles next year and provide them the latest tax benefits ahead of other industries, the nation’s fiscal policy chief said Thursday. The size of next year’s fiscal support for the industries dubbed the “Big 3” will be larger than this year’s corresponding figure of some 4.2 trillion won.  Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki po

South Korea’s fiscal policy chief said Wednesday that the nation’s heated housing market may see a sharper-than-expected drop in prices in the near-future, with the possibility of an interest rate hike by the end of the year growing. “With the early subscriptions for houses scheduled in the second-half of the year, experts’ remarks indicating a price peak, a looming interest rate hike and liquidity control, there is a possibility of a partial housing price correction,&r

South Korean conglomerate SK Group’s Southeast Asian investment arm has joined a consortium for AirAsia’s digital bank business in Malaysia, reports said Tuesday. SK South East Asia Investment has participated as a financial investor in a consortium led by the Malaysian budget airline’s financial technology unit BigPay vying for a digital banking license in the Southeast Asian country, according to Malaysian news reports. Due to SK’s nondisclosure agreement with BigPa

Major banking groups here have been posting record earnings for the first half of the year amid ongoing COVID-19 woes, buoyed by lucrative earnings from their brokerages, insurers and card issuers, data released as of Monday showed. So far, four out of five major banking groups here – KB, Woori, Hana and NH – have announced robust net profits for the first six months of the year, eclipsing their stellar performances shown in the same period last year. KB’s net profit for th

Deferred loan and interest payments owed by businesses hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea added up to an alarming 108 trillion won ($97 billion) this month, data showed Sunday. Since the launch of the deferral program in February last year, the combined amount of loans yet to be repaid totaled 99.7 trillion won as of Friday, data provided by the five major commercial banks here showed. Additionally, overdue payments set to be paid in installments amounted to 8.4 trillion won and overdu

South Korea’s finance minister on Wednesday lauded the success of property laws that took effect in July last year, saying they were able to increase lease contract renewals and protect tenants, despite growing criticisms of its side effects. “The average annual lease contract renewal rate of 100 apartment complexes in Seoul stood at 57.2 percent before the bills took effect, but the bills pushed it up to 77.7 percent,” Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki s

South Korea’s central bank on Tuesday named Ground X, a blockchain subsidiary of the nation’s tech giant Kakao Corp., as the preferred bidder for the partner position on its pilot digital currency development program. The Bank of Korea in May uploaded posts on its website seeking businesses interested in a 10-month partnership deal as a technological supplier to develop its central bank digital currency. It plans to close the deal by the end of the month before kicking off the pi

An abrupt fall in housing prices in South Korea could deal a substantial blow to the nation’s consumer spending and the job market amid high levels of household debt, a report by the central bank showed Tuesday. Consumer spending and employment rate could both plummet 4 percent in the next two years if the median housing price falls 20 percent in the same period, according to the Bank of Korea’s calculations. The calculation adopted a high loan-to-value ratio of 75 percent and ref

Citibank Korea’s planned announcement concerning details of its consumer banking business exit strategy was delayed by nearly a month on Friday, indicating that it may be facing more hurdles in the sell-off process. The firm previously said it would reveal the details of its exit plan -- whether it would sell off the entire retail banking business or in parts -- in July. A complete pull-out of the business in phases has been mentioned as a viable option as well. Citibank Korea CEO Yoo

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday kept its key policy rate anchored at record-low of 0.5 percent, with the latest wave of COVID-19 infections dampening its path to a hawkish policy. While some experts have said that a rate hike may come as early as this month, the widely-expected rate freeze decision came during this year’s fifth rate-setting meeting. The Bank of Korea has been keeping the rate at 0.5 percent since May 2020 after slashing it by a combined 0.75 percentage point

South Korea’s finance chief said Sunday he had proposed to set tax rates on excess profits of big multinationals at 20 percent in a discussion with his G-20 counterparts over the latest global tax reform. 　 Global financial leaders have reached a consensus on imposing taxes on companies with rates between 20 percent and 30 percent of the profit they generate in different countries beyond a 10 percent baseline. Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki pitched the lowest 20 p

The scheduled launch of South Korea’s comprehensive data service project next month has been delayed, financial authorities said Thursday, with the COVID-19 pandemic stalling its development. The government-led MyData project, when launched, will allow licensed service providers to collect and analyze personal data scattered across the finance sector. The service providers must collect consumers’ consent before they can access their data, currently held separately by different finan

South Korean banks are adopting unprecedented measures to boost cybersecurity in a bid to better compete with local fintech firms. Woori Bank said Monday it became the first lender here to adopt the security orchestration, automation and response technology, or SOAR. SOAR is an advanced set of technologies that enables organizations to automatically collect and file security data. The latest technology would help upgrade its cybersecurity platform from the previous monitoring-focused system

South Korea’s fiscal policy will be expansionary but its monetary policy could turn slightly more hawkish, the respective chiefs in charge of each said Friday. Both said their solutions would minimize the economic woes stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki met Friday with Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol amid controversy over policy discord. There have been strong signals of a rate hike by the end of the year from the central bank, and the government recently unv

Some 80 percent of South Koreans will receive 250,000 won ($220) each in the latest COVID-19 cash handout program, officials said Thursday. After a pangovernmental meeting, officials said they have decided to earmark 10.4 trillion won for the nation’s fifth cash relief program. The money will be funneled from the nation’s 33 trillion-won second COVID-19 extra budget for this year, which the ruling party and government jointly unveiled Tuesday. The “bottom 80 percent income b