Samsung Electronics has struck an agreement with U.S.-based bank Wells Fargo & Company to include it in its mobile payment platform, the South Korean electronics company said Friday. Under the partnership, Samsung Pay users can make purchases using their Wells Fargo accounts. The South Korean tech giant earlier clinched similar deals with Bank of America, Citibank and Chase Bank of the United States. The mobile platform supports a magnetic secure transmission technology that works on traditional

March 4, 2016

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves dwindled for the fourth straight month in February due partly to a cut in the value of non-U.S. dollar assets, the central bank said Friday.Foreign exchange reserves stood at $365.76 billion at the end of last month, down $1.54 billion from the previous month according to the Bank of Korea.  An employee count outs dollars at a local bank. (Yonhap)Foreign exchange reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in overseas currencies, along with Int

March 4, 2016

Dongbu Steel may avoid a forced exit from the stock market, as its main creditor pushes for a debt-equity swap that would help the company reduce debt and meet capital requirements for a listing maintenance. “Creditors are in talks for a debt-to-equity swap to help our firm avoid being delisted, but the amount or timing of it is not decided,” the steelmaker said Thursday in a filing in Seoul. The state-run Korea Development Bank, Dongbu’s largest creditor, is currently lining up support from oth

March 3, 2016

Korea’s savings banks slashed interest rates on time deposits to below 2 percent, approaching the levels offered by commercial banks, amid the central bank’s record-low key rate policy.  (123rf)The average interest rate on 90 fixed-term deposit products with a one-year maturity declined to 1.99 percent a year as of Tuesday, from the 2.67 percent recorded on Jan. 1 last year, according to data from the Korea Federation of Savings Banks on Thursday. The data showed that 2.32 percent was the highes

March 3, 2016

Loans extended to South Korea’s local firms grew at a slower pace in the fourth quarter of last year, mainly led by contractions in the manufacturing and construction sectors, central bank data showed Thursday.Corporate lending by banks and nonbank financial institutions came to 943.3 trillion won ($771 billion) at the end of 2015, up 11.2 trillion won, or 1.2 percent, from three months earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. Employees serve customers at a local bank. (Yon

March 3, 2016

Korea’s Internet banking transactions surged to a record high last year, central bank data showed Thursday.The daily amount of money transferred through Internet banking services also 40 trillion won ($32.79 billion) for the first time in history, the Bank of Korea said.  A consumer wires money from a mobile phone. (Yonhap)The number of daily transactions processed via the Internet reached an average 78.02 million in 2015, rising 17.4 percent from the previous year. The amount of money processed

March 3, 2016

Industrial output fell and current account surplus narrowed in JanuaryConcerns about Korea’s economic recession are growing as the nation’s industrial output fell for a third consecutive month in January amid faltering exports and a contraction in consumption and investments.The government attributed decreased demand for cars affected by the expiration of the excise tax reduction to the on-month decline in industrial production.But industrial experts said it may be impossible for the government

March 2, 2016

Prudential Life Insurance Korea on Wednesday unveiled a new annuity product targeting people preparing for retirement, digging deeper into a market that is poised to take off as the country’s population ages rapidly. “Life expectancy has greatly increased, but our retirement age hasn’t changed much. To the contrary, we see many cases where people are being forced out of their jobs at an even earlier age,” CEO Kurtis Jang said in a press conference. “It’s time to think seriously about retirement

March 2, 2016

After 60 years in operation, South Korea’s bourse has become the world’s 14th-largest stock exchange and is now eyeing to sharpen its global competitiveness by overhauling its centralized operation system. (Korea Exchange)Launched in 1955 to trade shares of just 12 listed companies, Korea Exchange, the sole securities exchange operator, now lists over 1,927 companies, including 770 on the main board KOSPI and 1,157 in the tech-laden KOSDAQ with a market cap of more than $1.23 trillion. “Korea’s

March 2, 2016

Korean shares spiked 1.6 percent Wednesday as investors cheered the overnight gains in the U.S. stock market as well as rising oil prices, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved up 30.76 points to finish at 1,947.42. Trading volume was moderate at 316.86 million shares worth 5.11 trillion won ($4.16 billion), with gainers beating losers 571 to 239.A rebound in global oil prices lent support to investor sentimen

March 2, 2016

South Korea’s state-run pension fund suffered a setback in its investment return in 2015 from a year earlier due to sluggish returns from stock investments, the health ministry said Wednesday.The National Pension Service‘s investment returns stood at 4.57 percent last year, earning 21.6 trillion won ($17.6 billion), down 0.68 percentage point from a year earlier.The NPS’ investment return was higher than the 2.4 percent rise in the country‘s benchmark index, the KOSPI, last year. The index suffe

March 2, 2016

Microsoft founder Bill Gates took the crown as the world’s richest person for three straight years, according to Forbes 2016 World’s Billionaires list released on Tuesday.Despite the worth of his net assets decreasing by $4.2 billion to $75 billion due to weak stock markets and plunging oil price, Gates ranked first in the list of 1,810 billionaires in the world. Fashion retailer Zara founder Amancio Ortega ranked second with $67 billion, up two places from last year, and investment genius Warre

March 2, 2016

Foreign investors are estimated to have earned 5.7 trillion won ($4.63 billion) in dividend payments from their shareholdings in South Korea last year, data showed Tuesday.According to data compiled by industry tracker FnGuide, 710 companies from the country‘s main bourse and tech-heavy KOSDAQ closing their books in December handed out 36.4 percent of combined dividends to overseas investors. Share prices are displayed on the Korea Exchange in Seoul. (Yonhap)Foreigners accounted for almost 40 pe

March 2, 2016

This is the third in a series of articles analyzing the top 10 companies by market capitalization traded on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market. --Ed.For a company holding the No. 3 spot on the Kosdaq stock exchange, Dongsuh Companies Inc. has surprisingly little presence in the Korean media. This family-run company is known for not being accessible to journalists, with no interviews, press conferences or other typical media-relations activities that companies here often do to promote themselves.  For

Feb. 29, 2016

Lotte Shopping and E-Mart, two of Korea’s major retail giants, on Monday denied making a bid for smaller hypermarket chain Kim’s Club. “We hereby officially deny media reports that our company is among the bidders shortlisted for the takeover of Kim’s Club,” E-Mart said in a regulatory filing. In a separate filing on the day, Lotte Shopping also denied any bid. (Yonhap)Rumors have been brewing as to which of the country’s retailers is among the three bidders shortlisted for the acquisition of th

Feb. 29, 2016

Korea Exchange, the operator of the main South Korean bourse said Monday it plans to export its integrated information technology system for stock trading to Vietnam this year.KRX chief Choi Kyung-soo is planning to visit Vietnam around the end of next month to sign a $28 million contract with the Southeast Asian country to sell the bourse’s integrated trading platform, including trading, settlement and market oversight.  An investor monitors share prices at the Korea Exchange. (Yonhap)“This wil

Feb. 29, 2016