The Bank of Korea said Monday that Korea and Japan have decided against extending their bilateral currency swap agreement.“Authorities of Korea and Japan have concluded to end the bilateral won-yen currency swap arrangement equivalent to $3 billion between the two central banks, which is due to expire on July 3, 2013,” said the BOK in a statement.This would end their financial cooperation in which Korea sought to further globalize its currency and use the yen, one of the G3 or top three global c

The Korean financial markets continued to take a beating from the “Bernanke shock” that foretold the near conclusion of U.S. monetary stimulus, spurring worldwide asset selloffs.Eroded confidence caused the benchmark stock index to approach the 1,800 threshold as soon as the market opened, while interest rates on three-year state bonds surpassed 3 percent. The won also further weakened against the U.S. dollar.The KOSPI fell about 1.5 percent finishing at 1,822.83 on Friday, following an overnigh

The Korean financial markets tumbled Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled plans to phase out its quantitative easing that led investors worldwide to unload their stocks.The Korean benchmark KOSPI declined for the second straight day, finishing at 1,850.49 on Thursday. It fell 2 percent from Wednesday, following an overnight loss on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points.The Korean won fell about 15 won to a year-to-date low of 1,145.7 won to the

The country’s state sector saw its outstanding debt snowball to 915.6 trillion won ($808.8 billion) in first quarter of this year.That figure was about 91 percent higher than the 480.4 trillion won recorded in the first quarter of 2008 when former President Lee Myung-bak took office, according to data by the Bank of Korea on Wednesday.The general government sector consisting of the central government, regional governments and the national and social pension services saw its debt increase by almo

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said Korea would help Myanmar to adopt the Saemaul Movement, a development model, Korea used during the 1970s to grow the economy under the direction of late President Park Chung-hee, the father of President Park Geun-hye.A group of government officials led by Hyun visited Naypyidaw on Wednesday to hold a series of meetings with Myanmar officials, including Kan Zaw, minister for National Planning and Economic Development of Myanmar.Korea pl

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said Tuesday that excessive regulatory enforcement against the private sector would hamper business growth and thus the economy.In a meeting with the chiefs of the Fair Trade Commission, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service on Tuesday, Hyun cautioned that too much regulation could send a wrong message to the market as if the administration is out to get every company.FTC chairman Noh Dae-lae, NTS chief Kim Duk-joong and KC

Chiefs of Korea Coal Corp. and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety are expected to be removed from their posts by the government for their poor management, officials said Tuesday.The two companies received the poorest grade of E on their 2012 management report cards by a team of 159 civilian experts evaluating 111 state-owned and quasi-state enterprises.The Finance Ministry said Tuesday that 16 chiefs of state-run and quasi-state enterprises, including Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority, Korea Hyd

Korea’s antitrust regulator will allow manufacturing-focused conglomerates to own financial subsidiaries such as insurance companies, but only if they reorganize their governance structures to transform into holding companies.In a policy and legislative briefing to the National Assembly’s National Policy Committee on Monday, the Fair Trade Commission said that chaebol, or family-run conglomerates, with a main interest in manufacturing would also have to establish separate intermediate holding co

Diageo, a global whiskey maker, said Monday that it has appointed Cho Kil-soo as the new chief executive of its Korean unit.He will replace Kim Jong-woo, who has held the top position since 2007.Cho previously held an executive position at Johnson & Johnson’s Asia-Pacific strategic sales division before joining the maker of the renowned Johnnie Walker and Windsor whiskey brands.He also worked at Nestle and Kellogg. (hkp@heraldcorp.com)

The Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. and its subsidiary KRNC are mired in controversy over setting up paper companies in tax havens by former executives and employees of the two state-run financial companies.The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, known locally as Newstapa, on Saturday released another batch of six Koreans found to have operated two ghost companies in the British Virgin Islands.The six included Kim Gi-don, former CEO of KRNC and former senior manager of KDIC, and five others

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Sunday that it planned to propose amendments to legislation on foreign exchange transactions to allow increased monitoring and punishment by state regulators of those who hide assets offshore.The revised bill to be reviewed by the National Assembly over the next month would give local regulatory agencies such as the Korea Customs Service and the Financial Supervisory Service more power to conduct joint investigations into suspicions of illegal foreign ex

Korea’s Fair Trade Commission unveiled measures on Thursday to eradicate the long-standing practice of conglomerates pressuring their suppliers to lower their prices of goods and services as part of efforts to overhaul the supply chain management system and boost mutual growth.FTC chairman Noh Dae-lae said that the antitrust agency and other related organizations would overhaul the system ensuring fair valuation of SME products supplied to conglomerates, and impose tougher sanctions and regulato

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said Tuesday that the government would push to end the nation’s long-standing period of low growth through various economic policies that had been already devised for implementation in the second half of this year.In a meeting with heads of social and economic research centers, Hyun said recovery momentum was still weak although Korea’s first-quarter growth of 0.8 percent was above expectations.Korea continues to face growing risks and unce

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Monday that the government would ease rules governing the establishment of child care centers and increase its financial support to them.The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will be overseeing the process of deregulation to encourage the private corporate sector to build centers for their employees, the Finance Ministry said.The ministries said that they were aiming for 70 percent of private businesses to build child care centers within their compl

Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said Monday that it has imposed penalties against KCC and Hankuk Glass Industries after detecting that the two flat-glass manufacturing giants colluded to rig prices of their building materials.The antitrust agency will slap combined fines of 38.4 billion won ($34.1 million) on the two companies, and name one executive from each company involved in price collusion to be prosecuted.Its penalty measures also include forbidding the two manufacturers to share any inside

The sale of Woori Finance Holdings is open to foreign investors as well, Korea’s top financial regulator said Friday, amid the government’s stern move to wrap up the long-pending privatization of the country’s largest banking group.Shin Je-yoon, the chairman of the Financial Services Commission, stressed that there is “no discrimination against foreign banks” concerning the sale.“We’ll announce the plan (of Woori sale) at the end of this month, and (we) don’t have any intention to discriminate (

Korean financial and tax regulators are calling for global cooperation to track and clamp down on companies or wealthy individuals suspected of hoarding unreported funds in their accounts via paper companies in tax havens.Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Choi Soo-hyun told reporters that the regulatory body was seeking cooperation with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a unit of the Department of the Treasury, to use its extensive database and share tax-related information

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said Wednesday that it would lay the foundations for a sound venture ecosystem that can give every Korean the opportunity to turn innovative and creative ideas into lucrative businesses.Science and ICT Minister Choi Mun-kee said that the government’s incentives and deregulations to promote start-ups would boost job creation and national competitiveness.The Science and ICT ministry said it hoped to create about 650,000 jobs through these measures s

The eldest son of former President Chun Doo-hwan was found to have held an offshore account through a paper company set up in the British Virgin Islands in July 2004, a local journalist group said Monday.The former president’s son, Chun Jae-kook, was listed as the director and shareholder of a ghost company called “Blue Adonis” in the tax haven, and allegedly used it to open an account at Arab Bank’s Singaporean branch, the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism said.Various paper trails poin

The nation’s finance minister and central bank chief agreed on Tuesday that uncertainties were increasing due to a weaker yen and advanced economies’ possible early exit from quantitative easing. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok and Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo also shared the need for the government to closely monitor capital flows prone to increasing risks of volatility.The nation’s two finance leaders met over a casual breakfast to review and discuss the latest iss