Hyundai Card rolls out credit card with plentiful benefits

South Korean credit card issuer Hyundai Card has launched new credit cards which offer what the company says "ultimate rewards," for customers. The new credit cards under the Hyundai Card Z brand is the latest edition of the company’s credit card series named with alphabet letters. The new cards named after the last letter of the English alphabet comes with a range of cream-of-the-crop benefits, such as discounts at online streaming services, like Netflix, and retail ma

April 5, 2021

South Korea considering longer mortgage terms

With South Korea’s financial authorities gearing up to launch the nation’s first 40-year mortgage this year, as of Monday there was talk of longer-term options ahead -- as well as concern about whether longer-term mortgages are appropriate for the local housing market. The policymaking Financial Services Commission said Sunday that the state-backed 40-year option would be introduced for younger people and newly married borrowers as early as July. The FSC is jointly planning the mor

April 5, 2021

Big tech may outsmart banks in data-driven credit scoring: report

With abundant data and digital analytics tools, big tech firms could conduct a more accurate assessment of a company‘s creditworthiness than conventional banks, giving them the upper hand in providing lending services in terms of allocative efficiency, a think tank said Monday. Amid accelerating digitization in the financial industry, big tech firms are capitalizing on their platforms and growing user databases to expand their financial services from basic payment system to financial in

April 5, 2021

Department stores mark highest sales jump in 25 years

Sales at department stores increased 34 percent year-on-year in February in the biggest jump in 25 years since 1996, the latest data from Statistics Korea showed Monday. The retail sales index, which is designed to reflect consumption trends, appears to have recovered to near pre-pandemic levels during February, as it stood at 115.2 after adjustments for seasonal factors. The figure stood at 116.2 in December 2019. The first case of coronavirus was detected in Korea the following month. Februa

April 5, 2021

LG's departure from mobile biz to boost bigger rivals' presence

LG Electronics Inc.'s withdrawal from the mobile business is likely to help its bigger rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. expand their presence in the sector at home and abroad, industry observers said Monday, as there are limited alternatives for local consumers. After years of money-losing performance, LG said it will close its mobile business by July 31. The decision came two months after the company hinted at exiting from its loss-making mobile communications (MC) unit. LG's departur

April 5, 2021

Homeplus fined W468m for unfair biz activity

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Monday it has decided to fine discount store chain Homeplus 468 million won ($414,500) for unfairly passing on sales promotion costs to its contractors. Homeplus violated the large retailer business act by making multiple suppliers shoulder the costs worth around 720 million won in 2017 without prior signing of related contracts, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). The KFTC also ordered the company to take corrective measures. (Yonhap)

April 5, 2021

Daily transactions of internet banking up 21% last year amid pandemic

Daily transactions of internet banking services in South Korea rose 20.6 percent last year as customers preferred using financial services in a non-contact manner amid the pandemic, central bank data showed Monday. The value of daily transactions via online banking, including mobile banking, reached 58.7 trillion won ($52 billion) last year, compared with 48.6 trillion won the previous year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The daily use of online banking services reached 13

April 5, 2021

Samsung adopts new ERP system for efficient operation

Samsung Electronics Co. on Monday said the company adopted a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to enhance efficiency and productivity in its global operations. The South Korean tech giant said the system, which the company developed over the last 30 months, has been first used by its offices in China and Southeast Asian countries. Samsung said the new ERP system, called N-ERP, will be used by all of its overseas branches by January 2022. The world's largest memory chip and smartpho

April 5, 2021

FDI pledges to S. Korea up 44.6% in Q1 on post-COVID recovery hope

Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges to South Korea shot up 44.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, data showed Monday, as investors gradually resumed their business activities amid signs of the recovery in the global economy. Asia's No. 4 economy received $4.74 billion worth of FDI commitments in the January-March period, compared with $3.28 billion logged a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The amount of investment that actually arrived

April 5, 2021

LG bows out of handset business, bets on mobile solutions

  After 26 years of ups and downs, LG Electronics is putting an end to its money-losing handset segment and shifting its focus to future mobile solutions for bigger industries, the company announced Monday. LG’s board of directors decided to officially terminate the handset business by July 31 after trying, and failing, to sell it off in the past two months. “LG has failed to respond well to the intensifying competition with the top two players in the mid-range smartphone ma

April 5, 2021

Hankook Tire supplies tires for Chinese EV maker

Hankook Tire & Technology Co., the world's seventh-largest tiremaker by sales, said Monday it has been supplying tires for Chinese EV company NIO's models since last year. Hankook Tire has provided the high-performance Ventus S1 evo 2 tires for NIO's ES6 and EC6 SUV models since 2020, the company said in a statement. The company didn't provide an exact time frame for the supply deal or the value of the deal. Hankook Tire has supplied original equipment (OE) tires to Audi models, such as

April 5, 2021

Imported auto sales jump 34% in March despite pandemic

Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea jumped 34 percent in March from a year earlier on robust sales of German cars, an industry association said Monday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles climbed to 27,297 units last month from 20,304 a year ago despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. The three bestselling models last month were the Mercedes-Benz E 250 sedan, Audi A6 45 TFSI sedan and Mercedes-B

April 5, 2021

S. Korean casinos log big losses in 2020 on pandemic fallout

Casino operators in South Korea chalked up huge losses in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic sent the number of visitors plunging, data showed Monday. State-run casino operator Kangwon Land Inc. registered an operating loss of 431.6 billion won ($382 million) last year, a sharp turnaround from an operating profit of 501.2 billion won a year earlier. Kangwon Land, the country's only casino open to locals, is located in Jeongseon, some 200 kilometers east of Seoul. Another state-run casino operat

April 5, 2021

Samsung to fund W46.4b for 27 research projects

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it will provide support of more than 46.4 billion won ($41 million) for 27 research projects in the areas of basic science, materials engineering and ICT solutions. The South Korean tech giant confirmed the research projects chosen for funding in the first half of 2021, which include studies related to machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and DNA sequencing. Since 2013, Samsung has been helping to strengthen the development of basic science and f

April 5, 2021

S. Korean units of 3 foreign automakers suffer slump in Q1 sales

South Korean units of three foreign carmakers posted a 24 percent on-year drop in their domestic sales in the first quarter of the year, suffering the worst performance since the 2009 financial crisis, industry data showed Monday. From January to March, GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Corp. and SsangYong Motor Co. -- the Korean units of General Motors Co., Renault S.A. and Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. -- sold a combined 43,109 vehicles in the domestic market, down from 56,5

April 5, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on doubts over US infrastructure project

South Korean stocks opened lower Monday as investors speculate on a US congressional pushback over the massive size of the $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 4.71 points, or 0.15 percent, to 3,108.09 points in the first 18 minutes of trading. In Seoul, top cap Samsung Electronics edged up 0.24 percent, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix advanced 0.71 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor lost 0.21 percent, and i

April 5, 2021

Quarter of firms fail to pay interest on debt in 2020

Nearly a quarter of companies in South Korea failed to pay the interest on their debts in 2020 despite an overall rise in corporate earnings, a report said Monday. A total of 255 listed firms in Asia's fourth-largest economy had an interest coverage ratio of less than 1 last year, up six from a year earlier and accounting for 25.1 percent of 1,017 businesses listed on the country's main and secondary bourses, according to the report from the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI). The intere

April 5, 2021

S. Korea's household debt-to-GDP ratio nears 100%: report

South Korea's household debt has been rising faster than that in most major economies to reach nearly 100 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), a report showed Monday. The country's household debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 98.6 percent as of the end of June last year, according to the report from the Korea Institute of Public Finance. The figure is much higher than the global average of 63.7 percent and 75.3 percent for advanced economies. South Korea's growth pace of household debt has al

April 5, 2021

S. Korea's FX reserves fall in March on stronger dollar

South Korea's foreign reserves declined in March as the US dollar's strength reduced the value of non-dollar assets, central bank data showed Monday. The nation's foreign reserves came to $446.1 billion as of end-March, down $1.43 billion from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). Foreign reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in overseas currencies, International Monetary Fund reserve positions, special drawing rights and gold bullion. The FX reserves dec

April 5, 2021

Bitcoin falls after hitting all-time high, widens gap with global exchanges

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, fell on Sunday after hitting a fresh record high over the weekend. The price difference between domestic and overseas exchanges, dubbed as the kimchi premium, widened as much as 10 percent, indicating a heated investors’ atmosphere. Bitcoin prices stood at around 73.50 million won ($65,056) in the early afternoon at local exchange Upbit and Bithumb, declining from the fresh record high of 75.30 million won on the previous day. This compares to other

April 4, 2021