Kookmin Bank offers direct mobile payment

Kookmin Bank has introduced a direct payment service with only smartphone numbers for the first time in the local banking industry.Customers of the commercial bank are allowed to pay for goods with their smartphones immediately through the app “UbPay.”By registering their bank accounts on the UbPay app, customers can enjoy the direct payment service ― not a monthly-based payment ― only with their phone numbers.Over the past few years, Kookmin Bank has led in comprehensive personal banking servic

March 13, 2012

KRX plans to strengthen market monitoring: official

Bourse operator to take steps against trades aimed at tax evasionKorea’s bourse said on Tuesday it would beef up its market monitoring as part of efforts to crack down on irregularities, many of which are related to tax evasion. The Korea Exchange, which runs the country’s stock market, said it is now in talks with other government authorities to implement new monitoring rules aimed at uncovering trades made to evade taxes. “The scope of market monitoring will be expanded to include those trades

March 13, 2012

Korean, Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth

Russian and South Korean scientists signed a deal Tuesday on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic, and controvers

TechnologyMarch 13, 2012

Financial firms’ household loans decline in January

Household loans offered by South Korean depository institutions dropped in January for the first time in two years, the central bank said Tuesday, amid the government’s on-going efforts to curb private debts. Household lending handled by local banks and non-bank institutions totaled 639.3 trillion won ($568.3 billion) as of the end of January, down by 3.4 trillion won from the preceding month, according to the Bank of Korea. The monthly decline was the first drop since January of 2010.Household

March 13, 2012

KIC gets $200m investment quota from China

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s sovereign wealth fund has received a regulated quota of $200 million to invest in China’s stock and bond markets, officials said Tuesday.Korea Investment Corp. received the investment quota from the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange about three months after it was granted a license to join China’s qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) program, a source at the company said.The company will complete its preparation for trading in Chi

March 13, 2012

Private lenders’ overdue loans surpass W600b

Overdue loans at Korea’s 10 largest private lenders surpassed 600 billion won ($535 million) earlier this year, data showed Tuesday, raising concerns over its impact on household debt.The amount of overdue loans at the 10 players, including market leaders A&P Financial and Sanwa Money, reached 609.9 billion won as of January, up 52.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by industry sources and the Financial Supervisory Service.The data also showed that the default rate of the priva

March 13, 2012

Samsung Fire stays top in insurance market

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. has retained its top position in South Korea’s nonlife insurance industry for fiscal year 2011, but the gap of its market share compared with its main rival has been narrowed, sources showed Tuesday. According to industry sources, Samsung Fire’s cumulative original premium stood at 12.0 trillion won ($10.7 billion) in the April 2011-January 2012 period, accounting for 26.5 percent of the market. No. 2 player Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance Co.’s original premi

March 13, 2012

Red meat boosts risk of dying young: study

Eating a portion of processed red meat daily can boost a person's risk of dying young by up to 20 percent, said a long-running US study of more than 120,000 people released on Monday.While the research by Harvard University experts offers more evidence that eating red meat increases the risk of hear

TechnologyMarch 13, 2012

Apple says shipment of new iPad may take 2-3 weeks

Apple said that shipments of its new iPad to customers who order it online may take two to three weeks but that the tablet would still be available in stores on Friday.Apple, which has set March 16 as the launch date for all sales of the third-generation iPad, said online pre-orders of the device ha

TechnologyMarch 13, 2012

Venus and Jupiter cuddling up in night sky

It's not too late to catch the spectacular Venus and Jupiter show.On Monday and Tuesday evenings, the planets will appear just 3 degrees apart in the western sky. The gap has been narrowing since last month.The two planets are visible every night at twilight. Venus is brighter because of its relativ

TechnologyMarch 13, 2012

BOK opens Shanghai office

South Korea's central bank said Monday that it opened an office in Shanghai in a bid to better monitor the Chinese markets.The Bank of Korea said the new office in Shanghai will help it get better access to Chinese market information on a real-time basis as it has recently been granted a license to

March 12, 2012

Most outside directors at big firms to be reelected

Lack of accountability,  alleged role as lobbyists for firms put them in doubtMore than half of outside directors are set to be reelected at upcoming shareholder’s meetings for the country’s major companies, reigniting the dispute over their “neutral” position. Even new outside director positions are forecast to be filled with retirees from powerful government agencies such as the courts, tax office and prosecution, fueling concern about their roles being reduced to a conduit for lobbying betwee

March 12, 2012

BOK obtains license to invest in China

The Bank of Korea said on Monday it has been allowed to invest in China’s stock market. China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange set the investment limit at up to $300 million for Korea’s central bank on Friday, an approval process for investment in the main bourse. The BOK already obtained the license from the Chinese authorities to invest in the inter-bank bond trades, which are functioning as an over-the-counter market, in January this year. The central bank said it will begin investi

March 12, 2012

Korea, Qatar agree to seek joint overseas construction projects

Korea and Qatar have agreed to seek joint construction projects in third countries, by combining Korea’s building sector prowess with Qatar’s large national fund, the Land Ministry said Monday.The agreement was reached at a meeting in Doha between Yousef Kamal, Qatar’s minister of economy and finance, and South Korea’s Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Kwon Do-youp.Under the agreement, Qatar will use its sovereign wealth fund to help finance overseas construction projects secured

March 12, 2012

Manufacturers hit by high oil prices: poll

High international oil prices have undermined Korean manufacturers by raising their production costs sharply and eating into profits, a poll showed Monday.The survey of 300 companies nationwide conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed 81.6 percent of the respondents saying they were feeling the pinch of steeper oil prices.Prices of the benchmark Dubai crude that make up roughly 80 percent of the country’s oil imports surged to $123 per barrel last Thursday from an average o

March 12, 2012