The so-called “Choi Soon-sil gate,” a political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye, is adding to growing fears of a serious crisis in the Korean economy, with the scandal shaking the sentiments of foreign investors. The scandal is seen impacting not only the financial market but also the real economy that is already trapped in protracted sluggish growth, darkening overall economic outlook for next year. This week alone, the country’s main stock trading index, Kospi, shed 33.85 points as o

Oct. 27, 2016

HSBC Korea said it held an English book reading event for Korean children at an elementary school in Seoul on Thursday.Kids Read, a reading program developed by the British Council and supported by the bank and Seoul Metropolitan Government, helps children develop English language skills as well as encourages them to read for pleasure, the bank said.At Thursday’s event at Buksung Elementary School, 130 children and 20 teachers participated in the reading program, it said.HSBC’s Korean unit start

Oct. 27, 2016

South Korea ranked fifth in terms of business environment among 190 countries this year thanks to high scores in electricity supply and legal settlement and administrative systems for starting a business and taxation, a report by the World Bank showed Wednesday (Korean time).According to the organization's annual "Doing Business 2017" ranking report, the country received 84.07 points in total, slightly up from the previous year's 83.88, but fell one notch from a year earlier.Every year, the Worl

Oct. 26, 2016

Korea‘s top financial regulators, bank heads and ambassadors of Southeast Asian nations pose for a photo Monday after gathering for dinner to discuss stronger financial ties between Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Participants include (fifth from left in the front row) Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Zhin Woong-seob, Thai Ambassador to Korea Sarun Charoensuwan, Financial Services Commission Chairman Yim Jong-yong, Indonesian Ambassador to Korea John Aristianto Prasetio a

Oct. 25, 2016

Korea Exchange will aggressively push for restructuring of the current governance of the stock trading board operator, said its CEO Jeong Chan-woo on Tuesday. At the first press conference since his inauguration early this month, Jeong affirmed his firm determination in carrying out the long-held government plan aimed at boosting the county’s capital market. KRX CEO Jeong Chan-woo speaks at his first press conference, held in Yeouido, western Seoul, Tuesday. (KRX)The governance restructuring has

Oct. 25, 2016

SK hynix Inc., a South Korean chipmaker, reported a 47.5 percent plunge in its third-quarter operating profit that exceeded expectations, thanks to a steady recovery in memory chip prices.SK hynix said in a regulatory filing that it posted an operating profit of 725.9 billion won ($640.6 million) for the July-September quarter. The result beat expectations. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, forecast that SK hynix would post an

Oct. 25, 2016

Some Lotte Group units are seeking to raise funds by selling bonds after the prosecution concluded a probe into the owner family's alleged wrongdoing that rocked the retail giant, market watchers said Tuesday. Wrapping up a grueling four-month investigation last week, prosecutors indicted Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, his father and elder brother without detention on charges of embezzlement and other business irregularities. According to sources, Hotel Lotte, a crown jewel of the country's

Oct. 25, 2016

Self-employed people in their 20s and 60s face a higher risk of defaulting on loans from financial institutions due to their increased debt burdens, the Korea Institute of Finance said in the report on household debt.The loan-to-income ratio for those in their 20s jumped to 173.9 percent as of May, this year, from 111.6 percent seven years earlier. Those for 60-somethings surged to 286.5 percent from 208.1 percent during the same time period. LTI is the percentage of monthly gross income that go

Oct. 24, 2016

Futurist Thomas Frey, founder of US think tank DaVinci Institute, delivers a keynote speech on decoding future education at an education forum at Coex, southern Seoul, Monday. The forum, hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Ministry of Education, invited software education experts from advanced economies including the US, the UK, New Zealand and Finland to offer insights to Korean teachers and students. (Yonhap)

Oct. 24, 2016

Reforms after the 1997 Asian financial crisis improved market regulations in South Korea, however experts insist there is still room for improvement. Government officials, regulators and academics gathered at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Asian Roundtable on corporate governance at a hotel in Seoul on Monday to discuss recent corporate governance developments in Korea.Jung Sun-seop, a professor at Seoul National University School of Law, said recent reforms in marke

Oct. 24, 2016

Buoyed by seven songs topping an online K-pop chart over the weekend, JYP Entertainment’s stock price on the Kosdaq rose nearly 10 percent for the past one month, according to data from Korea Exchange.JYP, led by veteran musician Park Jin-young, is relatively small in terms of company size compared to its archrivals S.M. Entertainment and YG Entertainment, but it is definitely full of growth potential --especially next year, local securities analysts say.  (JYP Entertainment)Bigger players S.M.

Oct. 24, 2016

Peer-to-peer lending in South Korea grew at a fast pace in the third quarter of the year, as individuals with low credit ratings flocked to the burgeoning lending scheme and yield-hungry investors funneled more money into it, industry data showed Monday.According to the data compiled by industry tracker Crowd Institute, P2P lending in the country was tallied at 188 billion won ($166 million) in the third quarter of the year, sharply rising from 104 billion won in the second quarter and 49.6 bill

Oct. 24, 2016

The Financial Services Commission said Sunday that its chairman Yim Jong-yong said he would aggressively support Korean credit finance companies to help them make inroads into overseas markets.“If they have difficulties in overseas markets due to administrative approvals and lack of market information, I will help them resolve such issues,” Yim said at a meeting with officials from credit card companies and capital firms on Friday. “At regular meetings with financial authorities overseas, I will

Oct. 23, 2016

Chinese nationals have been increasingly making inroads into the expensive real estate market in Seoul and its surrounding cities, but the move will not be powerful enough to drive up the overall home prices, experts said.According to data by the Seoul Metropolitan City, the number of land lots owned by Chinese nearly doubled to 4,139 in the first half of this year from 2,113 at the end of 2014. By land size, property owned by Chinese nationals rose 29 percent to 171,600 square meters from 133,5

Oct. 23, 2016

Expectations that Fitch Ratings would upgrade South Korea’s sovereign credit rating have been dampened as the agency decided to keep the country’s level at “AA-” for four consecutive years. Fitch Ratings announced Thursday night it kept South Korea’s sovereign credit rating at the current level, due to the remaining long-term challenges of the fourth-largest economy in Asia. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s made upgrades in the country’s ratings in August and last December, respectively.

Oct. 21, 2016