Managing boards of Korea’s seven commercial banks held urgent board meetings late Monday evening and decided to adopt performance-related pay systems, drawing protests from labor unions.How and when the banks will enforce the new pay systems remains unclear, as managing boards will have to reach an agreement with labor unions first, observers said.Seven banks of KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana, Standard Chartered Bank Korea, Citibank Korea and NongHyup held a board meetings and agreed to ad

Dec. 13, 2016

Officials of the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service hold a meeting on reviewing financial risks at the FSS headquarters in Yeouido on Monday. (FSC)South Korea will raise the target ratio of fixed-rate loans next year in order to reduce risks from rising interest rates, the country’s top financial regulator said Monday. At a meeting jointly held by the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service to review financial risks, the authorities vowed to b

Dec. 12, 2016

After positioning itself as the first direct car insurer, AXA Direct Korea will grow into a direct general accident insurer with an aim to acquire 1 million customers by 2022, its CEO Francois Lecomte said. “We are mostly a motor insurance company, but now we try to be equally strong in accidental health insurance, where AXA Group in other countries is strong. We want to develop that in Korea, too,” Lecomte told The Korea Herald. Last month, Lecomte won approval from Paris-based AXA Group for a

Dec. 11, 2016

Borrowers are scurrying to shift to fixed rate bank loans amid growing speculation that the country's interest rates would rise in tandem with a much-expected rate hike in the United States, with the portion of fixed-rate loans topping 40 percent, industry data showed Sunday.According to the sources, the portion of fixed-rate loans against total loans extended by the country's four major banks stood at between 41.3 percent and 45.8 percent as of end-November, a whopping increase from the mid-30

Dec. 11, 2016

The Korean stock market is likely to be relieved by the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, as the outcome was widely expected and already priced into the market.　On the day of the vote, the Kospi index remained stable, only falling slightly by 0.31 percent. The index had been on the rise over the three days since the opposition parties proposed the impeachment bill on Tuesday.“(The stable market) is because the vote today is different from the political impeachment of the late president Roh

Dec. 9, 2016

Koreans will face stricter requirements in order to gain access to a government-backed mortgage although the size of funds available for those eligible will be expanded, the financial authorities said Thursday.The Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport jointly announced that regulators will expand government-backed mortgages for next year, but will also limit the value of eligible properties and add an upper cap

Dec. 8, 2016

Several major securities companies in South Korea are set to move into new offices in Seoul this month either in line with new operational plans or as a result of mergers, industry sources said Thursday.Samsung Securities Co., the brokerage arm of South Korea's top family-controlled conglomerate, is slated to move from its current headquarters in downtown Seoul to the new office in the so-called Samsung Town in southern Seoul late this month, which houses other Samsung financial firms, including

Dec. 8, 2016

Asset management companies in South Korea may face criticism from clients for backing Samsung Group's controversial merger of two units last year, industry watchers said Thursday.In an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in mid-July last year, all asset managers in the country supported the combination of then-Samsung C&T Corp. and Cheil Industries Inc. The merged entity was renamed Samsung C&T. This combined image shows Samsung Group heir apparent Lee Jae-yong, who appeared for a parliamentary

Dec. 8, 2016

The number of cash dispensers (CD) and automated teller machines (ATM) fell for a second straight year in 2015 on growing demand for Internet and mobile banking services, South Korea's central bank said Thursday.The Bank of Korea said the number of CDs and ATMs across the country came to 121,344 as of the end of 2015 after hitting an all-time high of 124,236 in 2013.It said South Korea had 291 ATMs per 1,000 people -- the world's largest amount -- as of the end of 2014. In comparison, the United

Dec. 8, 2016

Behind-the-scenes talks between Samsung Group and the National Pension Service must have occurred to push through the controversial merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in July 2015, legal sources have claimed. The merger had faced strong opposition from individual shareholders led by US hedge fund Elliott Management.“There must have been coordination between Samsung and the NPS prior to the shareholders’ meeting on such a huge deal,” a legal source who is familiar with the matter tol

Dec. 7, 2016

South Korean’s overseas spending hit a new high in the third quarter on the back of increased outbound travel, central bank data showed Tuesday.According to data by the Bank of Korea, Korean people’s spending in foreign countries is estimated to have spiked 17 percent to 8.2 trillion won in the period of July to September this year from a year earlier. The increase marks a 23 percent surge from the second quarter.It is the first time the quarterly overseas spending exceeded 8 trillion won.The ov

Dec. 6, 2016

South Korea's Shinhan Bank said its Indonesian unit, Bank Shinhan Indonesia (BSI), has completed a merger with another Indonesian bank in the latest move to seek a new growth engine in the world's fourth most populous country.BSI won an approval from the Indonesian financial authorities for its plan to merge Centratama Nasional Bank (CNB) on Nov. 25, six months after the bank submitted the request for the merger. Suh Tae-won (2nd from R), head of Shinhan Bank Indonesia, poses for a photo in a ce

Dec. 6, 2016