The prolonged slump in crude oil prices may put a damper on the South Korean central bank’s anticipated monetary tightening, industry watchers said Monday. This came after oil prices spiraled to a record-low the previous week and the Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol picked the latest fluctuation on the oil price as one of the “external downside risks” in carrying out its monetary policy.“The prolonged crude slump has dampened the expectations for the inflation and normaliza

The Financial Supervisory Service said Sunday it has been in talks with the Financial Services Commission to raise the attention of the debts of the self-employed.The FSS and the FSC are reportedly focusing on breaking down the debts owed by the self-employed and helping the Moon Jae-in administration tackle and contain the rise of household debt. The government is set to announce a comprehensive measure against skyrocketing household debt in August.In doing so, the FSS is currently drawing up a

Item trading involving cash exchange is often seen as the culprit behind game-related crimes in South Korea, even causing cases of fraud or physical violence among game players. The feature is also behind the popularity of, or the gamers’ obsession with, South Korea‘s first-generation massively multiplayer online role-playing PC game “Lineage.”More recently, item trading has apparently become the deciding factor in the game developer’s stock prices.Ahead of the rele

The financial regulators launched a probe Wednesday on the massive short sellings of the game developer NCsoft the previous day, amid market concerns over alleged insider trading. On Tuesday, a day before the highly-anticipated release of the mobile game “Lineage M,” stocks of its developer NCsoft plunged 11.4 percent in the closing compared to Monday. This came on the heels of a hearsay circulating online at around 2:30 p.m. that the mobile version of the mega-hit PC game “Lin

South Korea’s stock markets are unlikely to be dampened despite foreign cash flight triggered by the MSCI’s plans to add China A Large Cap shares to its benchmark emerging markets index starting next year, according to the Financial Services Commission on Wednesday.The looming investors’ capital exodus of up to 4.3 trillion won ($3.76 billion) and reduction of their proportion in the emerging markets index by between 0.23 percent and 15.27 percent “will put little pressur

Kim Kyung-min, 27, was not aware of a pilot project by the Bank of Korea to reduce the use of coins until she was told by The Korea Herald.“Things would be convenient if I were able to receive change directly through my bank account,” Kim said, adding that carrying coins “can sometimes be a hassle.” Dubbed “Coinless Society,” the BOK’s project has got a lukewarm response from the public during its two months of operation. The project encourages users to

Korea Asset Management Corp. is building a track record of sharing knowledge abroad on nonperforming loan resolution.On Thursday, the state-run asset manager shared with a group of Vietnamese officials its know how on debt resolution and its experience of overcoming a financial crisis in 1998, during a session held in Busan.The firm has opened doors not only to offshore public representatives, but also academic circles. Students and faculty members from the Paris Dauphine University and Universi

The Fair Trade Commission filed a complaint with the prosecution Sunday against the head of local construction giant Booyoung Group for falsifying reports to the state-run antitrust agency, officials said.Booyoung Chairman Lee Joong-keun is accused of excluding seven companies being managed by his relatives from a list of the group’s subsidiaries, and possessing shares in six affiliates under borrowed names.The 76-year-old tycoon is the seventh-richest man in South Korea with unlisted stock asse

Apartment prices in South Korea on average grew nearly three times faster than current household income over four years under the previous administration, data showed Sunday. The price of jeonse -- referring to deposits for a two-year lease of a house instead of monthly payments -- also rose sixfold compared to income over the cited four years. The average current monthly household income rose by 8.7 percent, from 3.93 million won ($3,470) at the end of 2012 to 4.27 million won at the end of 201

China has been striving to take the lead in reshaping regional and global economic governance by creating a fresh network that connects Eurasia and South Pacific through a multilateral development financing institution, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping expressed the country’s aim to leverage and realize its centerpiece foreign policy, the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Since 2015, China has encouraged 65 countries to partici

South Korea’s stock markets dipped Thursday after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percent and shrink its balance sheet. The benchmark indexes -- the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations -- sank along with other Asian markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The Kospi closed at 2,361.65, down 0.46 percent, compared to Wednesday, while the Kosdaq slid 0.26 percent in closing from a day e

K bank has drawn 520 billion won ($463.1 million) in deposits in total within less than three months since its launch, surpassing its annual goal, according to news reports Thursday. K bank, South Korea‘s first online-only lender, reportedly exceeded its earlier goal by the end of 2017 on Tuesday, after kicking off the customer service on April 3. It had aimed to attract 500 billion won in customer deposit and lend 400 billion won. As of the end of May, K bank extended some 410 billion won

The growth of household loans continued to surge at a slower pace in May compared to the previous year, data showed Wednesday.The volume of household loans increased by 10 trillion won ($8.9 billion) in May this year, according to data from the Financial Services Commission. In the same month last year, the volume had risen by 11.9 trillion won.Among household loans in May, those extended by commercial lenders and trust banks surged 6.3 trillion won. Loans by nonbanking lenders saw their increas

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency is planning to launch an online service that runs on database to assist local businesses with their engagement overseas.During a press conference to celebrate its 55th anniversary Wednesday, President Kim Jae-hong of the state-funded agency unveiled a plan to launch a website dubbed “Kotra Overseas Markets Big Bot,” which he said is expected to offer businesses practical advice.“We have accumulated data on companies’ business expansion overseas for a l

South Korea‘s stock markets rebounded while sovereign bond yields fell Tuesday, despite possible monetary tightening in the United States and Korea. The benchmark indexes of Korean stock markets -- the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations -- closed after rising 0.71 percent and 0.66 percent, respectively, Tuesday.The five-year treasury yield dropped to 1.865 percent from 1.917 percent Monday. Ten-year yields edged down to 2.177 percent from 2

Stocks related to Alzheimer‘s disease remained high despite a slide in the main bourse index Monday, on the back of President Moon Jae-in’s fresh policy initiative to invest some 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) in supporting Alzheimer‘s patients. Moon last week vowed to install more state-run clinics for dementia treatment, increase personnel to look after the patients and widen medical coverage offered by the state. In South Korea, some 725,000, or 1 in 10 elderly people,

South Korea has provided over $50 billion in foreign direct investment to Vietnam, data from Vietnam’s State Capital Investment Corp. showed Monday.The accumulated FDI by South Korean businesses in one of the fastest-growing economy in Asia reached $50.6 billion, spanning 5,773 projects from 1988 to 2016.In 2016, the volume of investment from South Korea reached some $6.9 billion, a 2.53 percent increase from 2015. It made up 30.8 percent of the entire FDI inflow into Vietnam. Japan a

South Korea showed the third-highest rise of household debt compared to gross domestic product on-year at the end of last year out of the 43 nations surveyed by the Bank for International Settlements, data showed Sunday.South Korea’s household debt-to-GDP ratio came to 92.8 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2016, up 4.7 percentage points compared to the previous year, according to data from the Basel-based financial institution.Before South Korea came Norway, which rose at the steepest r

Housing prices in major metropolitan cities in South Korea have soared so far this month on-year, showing a stark contrast to drops in provincial regions, data showed Sunday. Busan, the second-largest city in Korea, showed an 11 percent surge in real estate prices on-year in June, the highest among cities in the nation, according to data by real estate market tracker Budongsan 114.The average apartment price per square meter in Busan reached 2.93 million won ($2,600), while the average in June l