Demand for bank loans expected to shrink in Q1: poll

Demand for bank loans by local companies and households is expected to decrease in the first three months of the year, a survey showed Tuesday.The overall index measuring demand for bank loans came to 15 for the January-March period, down from 25 for the previous quarter, according to the survey of 15 local banks conducted by the Bank of Korea.The fall comes as local firms apparently expect worse business conditions down the road, while households expect borrowing rates to go up as well."Demand

Jan. 5, 2016

Self-employed people struggle with snowballing debts

Loans taken by self-employed people in South Korea reached a record high in 2015, with some 20 percent of them at risk of becoming insolvent, a report showed Tuesday.According to the report by the Hana Institute of Finance, self-employed South Koreans owed a combined 520 trillion won ($437.5 billion) to local financial institutions as of end-June.Of the total loans, 18.5 percent were mortgages in excess of the government-imposed lending cap, known as the loan-to-value ratio that allows homebuyer

Jan. 5, 2016

State pension fund logs big profit in first 10 months of 2015: data

South Korea's state pension fund posted a profit of more than 20 trillion won ($16.8 billion) in the first 10 months of 2015 on increased earnings from bond and stock investments, official data showed Tuesday.The National Pension Service (NPS) said its profit reached 20.8 trillion won in the January-October period, with the rate of return standing at 4.24 percent.The profit doesn't take into account premiums paid by people who will receive pensions after they retire.The bulk of the profit, or 10

Jan. 5, 2016

IBK to expand technology-based lending, loans to SMEs

The state-run Industrial Bank of Korea plans to expand its support for small and medium-sized firms this year that will include more funding for startups that have nothing but technologies, the bank's top executive said Monday."Providing liquidity to small and medium-sized enterprises is what IBK is tasked to do," IBK Chairwoman Kwon Seon-joo said.To this end, the bank will expand its technology-based lending to 8 trillion won ($6.79 billion) this year, compared with 6 trillion won in 2015.Unlik

Jan. 4, 2016

FSS head urges careful watch against debt crisis

The chief of South Korea's financial watchdog vowed Sunday to step up efforts to ensure fiscal soundness of major lenders and financial institutes here Sunday, pointing to a possible crisis stemming from a U.S. rate hike."Risk management will be more important than ever in 2016,"Zhin Woong-seob, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), said in his New Year's message."Should a U.S. rate hike lead to an increase in interest rates here, local companies and households may experience a ve

Jan. 3, 2016

South Korean firms face possible cash crunch after rating cuts

South Korean firms may experience a credit crisis this year after a number of them have suffered cuts in their credit ratings, market observers said Sunday.According to Korea Ratings, one of the country's three largest credit appraisers, the number of local firms suffering credit rating downgrades in 2015 came to 61, nearly matching the number of companies suffering credit downgrades in 1998 amid the Asian financial crisis at 63.What is more troubling may be that companies in nearly all industri

Jan. 3, 2016

Sales of high-grade bonds tumble amid economic slump

Sales of high-grade corporate bonds in South Korea hit an over three-year low in the third quarter of last year amid growing concerns over earnings by shipbuilders, carmakers and steel producers, data showed Sunday.The net issuance of bonds with a credit rating of AA or higher plunged to 800 billion won (US$679 million) in the July-September period from 3.6 trillion won three months earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea and the Korea Securities Depository.It was the lowest level si

Jan. 3, 2016

Retail investors' presence hits 6-year high in 2015

Retail investors' turnover in South Korea's stock market reached a six-year high in 2015, apparently boosted by low interest rates and efforts to search for high-yield investment tools, data showed Friday.   The investors took up 67.6 percent of the daily turnover of 8.88 trillion won ($7.54 billion) on the main bourse and the secondary Kosdaq market last year, the highest since 67.7 percent tallied in 2009, the Korea Exchange data showed.   Their portion has been on a constant decline, reaching

Jan. 1, 2016

Gov't puts 19 troubled big firms on restructuring list

South Korea's financial watchdog said Wednesday it has picked 19 large companies to be placed under debt restructuring this year as part of efforts to prevent a sudden default in major industries.It is the result of the second inspection the Financial Supervisory Service carried out this year into 368 firms whose credit expansion surpassed 50 billion won ($42.59 million) and which show signs of going bust. Wednesday's decision brought the total number of companies subject to the forced restructu

Dec. 31, 2015

Billionaires' stock value hits all-time high

The combined market value of stocks held by the top 100 stock-rich people surpassed the 100 trillion-won ($849.25 billion) mark for the first time, aided by a rise in stock prices of cosmetics and bio firms, data showed Thursday.According to data compiled by market researcher Chaebol.com, the country's top 100 stock-rich people held 103.83 trillion won worth of stocks as of Wednesday.The figure is equivalent to 8.3 percent of the total market capitalization and 27 percent of South Korea's budget

Dec. 31, 2015

Seoul shares down 0.31% in late morning trade

South Korean stocks traded 0.31 percent lower late Wednesday morning due to losses from steelmakers and construction firms.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 6.01 points to 1,960.30 as of 11:20 a.m.Steelmakers lost ground, with No. 1 POSCO falling 2.06 percent and Korea Zinc sliding 1.07 percent. Hyundai Steel shed 4.49 percent.Builders traded bearish, with Hyundai Engineering & Construction losing 1.2 percent and Daelim Industrial moving down 0.15 percent. GS Engineering & Con

Dec. 30, 2015

Corporate restructuring needs pain sharing by all sides: finance minister

Corporate restructuring efforts aimed at bolstering South Korea's overall competitiveness should entail pain sharing by all interested parties, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday.Chairing his last meeting of economy-related ministers in Seoul, Choi Kyung-hwan said all restructuring efforts must be resolved in a speedy manner for the best possible effect."The government wants to push forward change, and it will insist on pain sharing by management, as well as workers," said the official,

Dec. 30, 2015

Hyundai Motor Group ordered to cut cross-shareholding ties

South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it has ordered Hyundai Motor Group to resolve cross-shareholding ties derived from an intra-group merger and acquisition between its two steelmaking units, amid the agency's recent push to break the cobweb-like shareholding structures of conglomerates.Hyundai Steel Co. was merged with Hyundai Hysco on July 1 as part of the business restructuring scheme of Hyundai Motor Group, the country's second-largest business group and the parent of Hyunda

Dec. 30, 2015

Two KB Financial units get new CEOs

Two subsidiaries of KB Financial Group will get new CEOs while six others will see their incumbent chiefs’ tenures extended, the country’s second-largest financial group by assets said Tuesday. The new appointments are Yang Jong-hee, a former vice president of KB Financial who will take charge of KB Insurance, and Yoon Woong-won, another former KB Financial vice president who will lead KB Kookmin Card. The appointments are subject to final endorsements by shareholders of the respective companies

Dec. 29, 2015