Korean bourse says it will tighten supervision of stock trades made on mobile devicesStock trading through smartphones, tablet computers and other wireless devices is expected to exceed 150 trillion won ($138 billion) this year amid growing concerns about network security, market watchers said on Wednesday.The Korea Exchange said the amount of stock trading done using wireless mobile devices toppe

May 18, 2011

KDB said to be leading potential bidder for September sale of bankThe financial authorities announced Tuesday that the state-controlled Woori Financial Group would be handed over to an investor through a bidding competition by September.The Public Fund Oversight Committee said that it would sell the nation’s largest financial group by assets in a “package deal.” The official announcement came amid

May 17, 2011

Local securities firms are bracing for the possibility of a liquidity crisis brought on by financial woes in the sluggish construction sector.The firms are closely monitoring the progress of a group of savings banks already suffering from overdue “project financing loans” issued to builders.The risk growing in the stock brokerage sector is due to asset-backed commercial papers, a type of securitie

May 17, 2011

Major securities companies are eager to recruit outside directors, mainly from government agencies with investigative power.Their recruitment practices have been regarded as a conventional strategy aimed at lobbying the agencies to minimize fallout from possible internal irregularities.According to sources in the stock brokerage industry, agencies whose former high-ranking officials are moving to

May 16, 2011

The number of people who have turned to private lenders or loan sharks in the secondary financial sector has jumped 18 percent over the past six months, reflecting worsening borrowing conditions for the poor amid industry-wide credit crunch. More than 2.27 million people took loans out from private lenders as of April, up about 300,000 from October, the Financial Services Commission said. Given th

May 16, 2011

Kim should have ordered U.S. fund to sell shares, watchdog official saysKim Seok-dong, the nation’s chief financial regulator, has once again come under public scrutiny for his allegedly irresponsible policy on U.S. Lone Star Funds, the biggest shareholder of Korea Exchange Bank.Following the vague stance he assumed on corruption scandals of regulatory staffers, for which he has yet to offer a det

May 15, 2011

High-ranking officials of the Financial Supervisory Service will likely be subject to a tougher code of conduct and may face dismissal if they fail to meet annual internal assessments, officials said Sunday. Currently, 12 FSS executives, three deputy governors and nine assistant deputy governors, are allowed to maintain their three-year term as long as they do not engage in criminality.“In the wak

May 15, 2011

The Bank of Korea should be given rights to supervise financial institutions independent of other financial authorities, BOK Governor Kim Choong-soo said Friday.Speaking after the monthly rate review meeting, Kim said that the central bank should be able to conduct independent supervision under “special circumstances.”“(The BOK) means to conduct (independent investigations) when a particular finan

May 13, 2011

The National Pension Service on Friday said that it will select eight local asset managers to set up 900 billion won ($830 million) fund investing only in Asia. The NPS, the world’s fourth largest pension fund, said that it will start taking bids on May 26 to run the Pan-Asia Fund which will invest in stocks, bonds and commodities of China, India and other Asian countries.“We’re expanding our inve

May 13, 2011

The Bank of Korea should be given rights to supervise financial institutions independent of other financial authorities, BOK Governor Kim Choong-soo said Friday.Speaking after the monthly rate review meeting, Kim said that the central bank should be able to conduct independent supervision under “special circumstances.”“(The BOK) means to conduct (independent investigations) when a particular finan

May 13, 2011

BOK freezes key rate at 3 % South Korea's central bank unexpectedly froze the key interest rate on Friday for the second straight month as economic uncertainty such as the eurozone debt crisis persists even in the face of inflation risks.   Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers held steady the benchmark seven-day repo rate, dubbed the base rate, at 3 percent for May. 

May 13, 2011

Prosecutors have uncovered additional alleged ethical breaches by former and incumbent staff at the Financial Supervisory Service.The further allegations of corruption by FSS officials are adding to public criticism the regulatory body is facing for its irregularities in supervising savings banks.The alleged scandals mostly involve FSS staff overlooking illegitimate practices in the market in retu

May 12, 2011

Korea’s money supply grew at the weakest pace in nearly seven years in March as payments of corporate tax drained money circulation, the central bank said Thursday. The country’s M2, a narrow measure of its money supply, reached 1,677.5 trillion won ($1.55 billion) in March, marking a 4.3 percent increase from the figure posted a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. The March reading was

May 12, 2011

Eight major commercial banks will next month purchase toxic loans totaling 1 trillion won ($923.6 million) issued to the construction sector as part of a bid from the nation’s financial regulators to minimize the negative impact of such loans on the market.Financial companies have issued loans to builders in the name of “project financing” over the past few years. But in the wake of the 2008 globa

May 12, 2011