South Korea’s financial authorities are reinforcing regulations to dissuade homeowners in Seoul from taking out loans to purchase additional residences, part of ongoing efforts to bring housing prices under control and subdue household debt. The Financial Services Commission recently revised its banking oversight regulations, which now restrict anyone who owns a home in the Seoul metropolitan area from taking on additional mortgages, officials said Wednesday.The new restrictions on lending

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 22nd installment. -- Ed.Foreign short selling activities on South Korea’s stock market have recently been growing, and with such a trend, there is a Korean startup offering a more comprehensive look into the short selling market landscape in Korea.Short selling refers to the act of selling stocks without owning them in hopes the value goes down. To do so, a short se

Longer-than-expected financial audits are posing hurdles to privately-held companies seeking initial public offerings on South Korea’s stock markets, amid a sharp fall in the volume of total investments through IPOs this year through the third quarter. Following the withdrawals of lubricant oil maker SK Lubricant and game software developer Kakao Games from plans to go public in April and in September, respectively, investors’ attention is on whether refiner Hyundai Oilbank, projecte

RAYONG PROVINCE, Thailand -- Along a green lake in Wangchan Valley, students clad in purple-and-green uniforms stroll around a school campus surrounded by woods that stretch across the northern Rayong province in Thailand. They are part of some 200 students at the Kamnoetvidya Science Academy (KVIS) in 10th, 11th and 12th grades, who are chosen among some 5,000-7,000 applicants through a multilayered screening process each year. An exterior view of the KVIS campus (Son Ji-hyoung/The Korea Herald

Anticipation is growing for the nation’s third internet-only bank as the authorities move to clear away hurdles affecting nonbanking institutions, including limits on ownership, following positive remarks from South Korea’s top financial regulator last week.Choi Jong-ku, chairman of Korea’s financial regulatory body, the Financial Services Commission, mapped out a plan to help the new digital banks to move in tandem with the changing environment in the financial industry landsc

The pangovernmental moves to “advance Korean markets to a financial hub in Northeast Asia” will gain steam, riding on the inter-Korean thaw in the wake of this year’s third inter-Korean summit, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Yoon Suk-heun told heads of foreign financial units in Korea on Wednesday. The remarks came as South Korea President Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un signed a joint agreement to reboot plans for bilateral business coope

South Korean markets gained little impetus on the first day of the third inter-Korean summit on Tuesday, as market analysts remained cautious about the summit’s potential long-term impact.But some analysts expressed the view that positive developments in inter-Korean relations could stimulate long-term market growth.In stock markets, the top-tier Kospi edged up 0.3 percent Tuesday, while the second-tier Kosdaq was 0.4 percent higher.Bond markets were moderately bearish in closing. The thre

Toptec, a South Korean maker of automated machines for production of display panels and semiconductors, denied recent allegations that it had attempted to sell confidential information on technology related to mobile phone screen lamination machines to China.The company also refuted claims that it had failed to protect company secrets of its biggest buyer, Samsung Display. Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday raided the Toptec headquarters in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, a

LIG Nex1, South Korea’s second-largest aerospace maker and defense company in terms of defense revenue, has sealed an agreement with the US defense system certification agency KBR to gain US Department of Defense certification for Korean military arms, so that they can be equipped with the latest “identification, friend or foe” technology. IFF technology is designed to minimize the chances of “friendly fire” incidents, in which military forces misidentify a target and attack their own troops or

With the arrival of the 21st century, innovation has increased connectivity among people to an unprecedented level, redefining communication.Speaking at the Herald Design Forum 2018 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on Friday, Junji Tanigawa, a Japanese spatial designer, entrepreneur and author of “The Space Composer” stressed the role of a spatial designer in the new era as a context provider who helps visitors memorize a space and fulfills expectations that people have about the space. Junji

The simplicity of a product design derives from outstanding treatment of complexity of the modern-day product brimming with high-tech features, Red Dot Founder and Chief Executive Peter Zec said in his lecture at the Herald Design Forum 2018 held Friday at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in eastern Seoul. Peter Zec, Red Dot founder and chief executive, speaks at Herald Design Forum 2018 in Seoul on Friday. (Lee Sang-sup/The Korea Herald)“Simplicty is not the opposite of complexity, it is just a very goo

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon urged the Bank of Korea to raise key interest rate Thursday, citing concerns about financial instability.“Without a rate hike, problems related to capital flight, a widening gap in interest rates between Korea and the United States and the (upward) pressure on (the level of) household debt will persist,” said Lee. “It is high time to take this matter more seriously.” Lee also blamed expansionary monetary policy during the forme

NH Investment & Securities, South Korea’s second-largest securities firm by net assets, was picked as the most preferred bidder for Seoul Square, a prime office building located in central Seoul, according to the company Wednesday. NH Investment & Securities expects the deal worth 1 trillion won ($890 million) to be complete by the end of November, which would be the second-priciest bid in Korea following an M&G Real Estate Korea 1.1 trillion-won purchase deal of the Centropoli

South Korea’s securities firms saw their local branch network shrink by 40.3 percent in the past seven years until June this year, with the arrival of mobile trading infrastructure here, data showed Wednesday.  According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the number of brick-and-mortar branches of 56 securities firms that locate at least one business unit in Korea came to 1,116 as of end-June, indicating that 756 branches in Korea have been removed since June 2011. By brok

The Korea Exchange, South Korea’s sole market operator, will list an exchange-traded fund Wednesday that tracks an index built on big data technology. 　The Kodex Secondary Battery Industry ETF, provided by Samsung Asset Management, will mark the first to use this methodology for this purpose, according to Ko Young-tae, an official in charge of ETF listings at the KRX.The big data techniques will include semantic analyses centering on online materials such as disclosures, investor relations

Hurdles that impede the flow of cross-border transactions have created cryptocurrency price gaps of more than 40 percent between Korea and other countries, researchers from South Korea’s central bank said Tuesday.The Bank of Korea researchers added that the underlying factors were unlikely to disappear in the near future, meaning the so-called “kimchi premium” is likely to endure for some time. The term “kimchi premium” refers to the gap in cryptocurrency prices on

South Korean investors on Monday began to rush to stocks in business areas related to the production of face masks and the development of vaccines, after the recent return of Middle East respiratory syndrome.But foreign investors contributed little to the sharp upward trend in demand for these stocks.  Upon market opening at 9 a.m., GeneOne Life Science, a Korean drugmaker known to have been pursuing development of a MERS vaccine; and Okong, a maker of adhesive products including disposable

South Korea’s 11 real estate trust companies logged a combined 285.3 billion won ($253.1 million) net profit in the first half of 2018, surpassing their performance in all previous half-years, preliminary data showed Monday.  The figure represented an on-year increase of 17.6 percent, and business was in the black for all 11 companies, according to the Financial Supervisory Service, Korea’s financial watchdog.Meanwhile, the companies’ operating profits soared 17.1 percent

This is the 61st in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed.South Korea’s leading smart card part manufacturer Kona I is gaining market presence as a reloadable prepaid card provider, catalyzed by a series of events over the past couple of months.Analysts have expressed optimism that the Seoul-headquartered firm, which has been running at a loss since 2016, can make turnaround by the end of this year.As of Friday, Kona I was the 193rd-la

South Korea’s central bank on Friday held the key rate steady at 1.5 percent for a ninth consecutive month on sluggish employment and external unease in August, defending its “accommodative” stance in normalizing monetary policy.The Bank of Korea cited sluggish employment conditions and spreading global trade protectionism, while expressing optimism for consistent domestic economic growth, favorable movements in exports and a moderate level of consumer price inflation at a