Woori Bank will become South Korea’s first commercial bank to shorten its workweek to 52 hours, a step to be implemented within a yearlong grace period under a government statute designed to help employees achieve a better work-life balance.Following an agreement between the bank’s management and its labor union, Woori Bank will begin phasing in the new policy in October. Teams or branches that require assistance will be reinforced with more employees, according to the bank. In addit

South Korean brokerage house Samsung Securities is expanding the global network for esports market research to local investors amid its growing presence in the sports industry. Esports refers to a form of competition using multiplayer video games. The ongoing 2018 Asian Games feature esports as a demonstration sport. ESports will debut as a medal event at the forthcoming 2022 Asian Games.  Samsung Securities analyzes the world’s esports market by two sectors -- game software developer

South Korea’s brokerage house KB Securities was slapped the highest number of disciplinary actions among financial firms here since 2015, data showed Wednesday.  From 2015 to the end of June this year, KB Securities, which was renamed after KB Investment & Securities’ merger with Hyundai Securities, were given 18 penalties from authorities -- the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, the Korea Exchange and the Fair Trade Commission. This accounted

Seoul-headquartered asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments has secured a foothold for its exchange traded fund-related business through acquisitions overseas.  In July, Mirae Asset’s asset management unit completed the acquisition of New York-based ETF provider Global X Management Co. LLC in a $488 million deal as announced in February. The acquisition is expected to provide an “anchor presence” in the United States ETF market. With the addition of global ETF

South Korean low-cost carrier Jeju Air announced Tuesday that Holiday Inn Express Seoul Hongdae will start operations Saturday in Hongdae, a neighborhood rife with street performances and works of art in the capital.This comes after about two years of construction on 53,900 square meters of land near Hongik University in western Seoul that kicked off in September 2016, largely backed by Jeju Air’s investment.Interior view of Holiday Inn Express Seoul Hongdae. (Jeju Air)Jeju Air has pledged to in

South Korea and Singapore will set up a fund worth at least 237.5 billion won ($213.2 million) to invest in Korean startups that seek to enter the Singaporean market and vice versa.  The state-backed fund of funds management firm Korea Venture Investment Corp. will partner with Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings to create the fund within six months, according to the Korean fund manager Monday.The size of the global fund could be expanded, depending on the volume of the Sing

South Korea’s securities brokerage houses reported a combined 2.7 trillion won ($2.4 billion) in net profit in the first half of this year, up 40.7 percent on-year, preliminary data showed Monday. This marked the highest half-year volume since the first half of 2007, according to data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service. The FSS is an oversight body of 55 securities trading companies in Korea. Meanwhile, the companies saw leverage ratio rise and financial stability decline throug

The Korea Federation of Banks on Sunday expressed hopes for local commercial banks’ annual offshore net income from financial branch network operations and investments to mark a record this year.In the first half of 2018, four Korean commercial banks -- Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana and KB Kookmin -- logged 527.2 billion won ($471.4 million) in net profits from offshore branches and investments overseas through investment banking and assets management. The figure soared 5 percent from the first

Costco Wholesale Korea, the South Korean unit of the US wholesaler, has chosen Hyundai Card as its partner starting next year, according to the Korean card firm Friday. Following Costco’s single-network credit card policy, the new 10-year contract will put an end to the wholesaler’s partnership with Samsung Card, which has been in place since 2000, once it takes effect May 24, 2019. Hyundai card said an in-house team devoted to private-label credit cards and data analysis had he

The number of vendors that use the card income management system Cashnote topped 100,000 as of Friday, according to the service provider, financial technology startup Korea Credit Data, Sunday. Cashnote is an add-on function for the mobile messenger service KakaoTalk. It helps merchants collect and manage card income records from different card companies and process charges efficiently. As of Friday, Cashnote had managed a cumulative total of 22 trillion won ($19.7 billion) in card income f

Students from the Asia Elite Business Scholars group recently visited a bank branch renovated into a cultural space in Seoul run by South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank.Located in Hongdae in western Seoul, the four-story building known as KB Rock Star Youth Lounge had been selected as AEBS’ exemplary case for transforming a space of business into one with cultural and artistic functions.AEBS comprises students from seven prestigious universities across Asia: Peking University, Fudan Univers

Fledging Korean startups devoted to urban technologies that help cities become more efficient and sustainable have been receiving support from the managers of incubator programs. Startup accelerator Company B, together with the Seoul Digital Foundation under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, gave representatives from 33 urban technology startups opportunities to share their views in a meeting of the Urban Tech Accelerating Program in Seoul on Aug. 17.  (Company B)Suggestions from the participan

The state-led Korea Water Resources Corp., also known as K-water, has invited 18 public servants from Southeast Asian nations to a seminar designed to help enhance the capability to manage water resources.  Officials of Southeast Asian countries and K-water pose during a seminar on ways to improve water supply systems and water quality, in Daejeon. (K-water)The seminar dubbed “Water Resources Development and Management” kicked off Monday and runs through Sept. 6. Held in Daejeon, a city 140 kilo

Seoul-based NongHyup Bank said Wednesday it gained regulatory approval Friday for operation of the Cambodian microfinance institution Samic that Nonghyup acquired in July.The Phnom Penh-based institution has been renamed NongHyup Finance Cambodia, following approval of the acquisition by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and National Bank of Cambodia. In July, the NBC greenlighted NongHyup Bank’s takeover of 100 percent of shares of Samic.It will begin operation in late August, according

Shinhan Financial Group is gearing up to raise 400 billion won ($357.5 million) through debt funding in its move to take over ING Life Insurance Korea. If Shinhan manages to raise the capital through hybrid tier-1 contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds as pledged on Friday, this year it will see its capital increase some 1.1 trillion won.In March, Shinhan Financial Group issued 150 billion won worth of won-denominated hybrid CoCo bonds to local institutional investors. Also in August, $500 million

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 21st installment. -- Ed.In June, the South Korean mobile game software developer iPeoples reneged on a promise to give 10 percent returns to those investing through an equity crowdfunding platform.The developer of the mobile game “Blue Marble M” was estimated to have crowdsourced 700 million won ($626,300) from some 770 investors by issuing bonds. It promised

Chinese mobile payment platform Alipay announced Monday it had launched a mobile tax refund service so users could claim refunds without visiting offline duty-free shops in airports or cities. To launch Alipay’s first tax refund service via mobile phone, the Korean unit Alipay Korea partnered with Global Tax Free, a Kosdaq-listed tax refund service provider for foreign tourists.Those buying products at shops supporting services by Global Tax Free -- in seven airports and three harbors

Downward pressure on South Korea’s markets appears to be on the wane, as the US dollar is taking a breather against currencies in emerging markets including Korea.  After opening higher on Monday morning, both the Kospi and the Kosdaq lost their earlier gains in the afternoon. The top-tier Kospi remained nearly flat, edging up 0.04 percent at closing, while the Kosdaq was down 0.3 percent. Markets here rebounded Friday from the price floor they had hit earlier last week, while signs o

This is the 60th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed.Listed game software developers in South Korea suffered lackluster performance in the second quarter this year due to sparse new releases coupled with external uncertainties.Moreover, analysts have considered the second quarter a typically low season for the gaming industry.This downtrend makes social casino game developer DoubleU Games’ earnings surprise in the quarter stand ou

Seoul-headquartered KB Kookmin Bank said Friday that it had launched a more efficient money-transfer service Thursday for its Indonesian customers, who can now convert South Korean won directly to Indonesian rupiah with no need to convert funds to US dollars first.  The commercial bank teamed up with Bank Negara Indonesia to lower the cost of converting currencies and make it possible to send money faster, KB Kookmin Bank said. Normally, to remit funds to Indonesia, a double-conversion proc