Woori Financial establishes ‘ESG financing principles’

Woori Financial Group said Sunday it has established “ESG financing principles,” a framework for the incorporation of environmental, social and corporate governance factors into the group‘s business portfolios.  The ESG finance principles introduce a definition and initial purpose of ESG finance, while stipulating how to integrate ESG values when making business decisions regarding various business models, including credit loans, project financing and wealth management,

April 25, 2021

FSC to expand loans for mid-credit borrowers

South Korea’s top financial regulator on Sunday unveiled measures to supply mid-range interest rate loans worth 32 trillion won ($28.7 billion) to 2 million borrowers with weak credit ratings by the end of this year. The policymaking Financial Services Commission plans to advise both conventional and internet-only banks to extend more mid-rate loans to borrowers with low to moderate credit scores like young people and small business owners, who find it difficult to access cheap bank loa

April 25, 2021

Edtech startup Databank snaps up $2.7m series A funding

South Korean educational technology startup Databank said Sunday it has completed a $2.7 million series A funding round and plans to use the proceeds to expand its artificial intelligence-powered services and widen its client base. Joining the latest round were domestic early-stage venture capital houses Company K Partners, Intervest and KB Investment. The fundraising brought the startup’s post-series value to $11.5 million, up sevenfold from the previous round of funding, according to th

April 25, 2021

KB clinches title as leading bank in Q1 with record earnings

South Korea’s KB Financial Group outperformed the three other major banking groups here in terms of first-quarter net profit, buoyed by its strong brokerage and other nonbanking businesses, data released Friday showed. KB’s net profit in the first three months gained 74.1 percent on-year to 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion) -- a record-high quarterly net profit since it became the holding entity of KB-branded financial and banking firms in September 2009. The value of its total asse

April 23, 2021

S. Korean brokerages vying for MyData license

South Korean securities firms, which are infamous for their rigid company culture, are competitively setting up their own digital platforms and seeking partnerships with rising fintech startups. Conventional stockbrokers are doing this for one reason -- they hope to do business in the MyData segment. MyData is one of the government’s marquee projects to reshape the outdated financial sector in response to the “fourth industrial revolution,” centered on digitalization. The gov

April 23, 2021

SC Bank Korea extends promotion to help boost children’s savings

Standard Chartered Bank Korea will extend a special promotion aimed at helping young customers build a better savings habit for an extra month until end-May, the lender said Sunday. The promotion, which was initially planned to run from March to April, offers 10,000 won ($8.95) to those aged 18 or under who open SC Bank Korea savings accounts if they meet certain conditions. The customers would need to open a checking account, named Dream-Youth Deposit, and a savings account, called First Hou

April 23, 2021

Crypto coins plunge amid growing bubble fears

Most cryptocurrencies have fallen significantly and a few, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin, have nose-dived more than 10 percent amid rising concerns over a potential bubble burst. Bitcoin, the world’s latest cryptocurrency, saw its price drop 12.08 percent Thursday, continuing a downward trend that started after it hit a high of 81,994,000 won ($73,243) on April 14, according to local crypto exchange Upbit. Dogecoin, which benefited from the enthusiasm of electric carmaker Tesla CEO El

April 23, 2021

S. Korea faces dilemma over cryptocurrency taxation

South Korea's financial authorities are moving to impose an income tax on cryptocurrency trading from next year, but investors in digital tokens have raised a nagging question about the proposed taxation. A growing number of cryptocurrency investors have cried foul over whether the government will collect a tax on virtual currencies while top policymakers see no intrinsic value in crypto assets amid a lack of regulations to protect cryptocurrency investors. Like many governments around the wo

April 23, 2021

Shinhan CEOs get slap on wrist over Lime scandal

The top executives of Shinhan Financial Group and Shinhan Bank received light sanctions Thursday over the sale of problematic funds structured by hedge fund firm Lime Asset Management.  A sanctions committee under the market watchdog Financial Supervisory Service handed down an admonition to Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung and a cautionary warning to Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong for their lax oversight of the Lime fund misselling.  The decision was made late Thursda

April 23, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower on US slump

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, tracking an overnight Wall Street plunge that was spurred by a tax raise proposal in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 25.91 points, or 0.82 percent, to 3,151.61 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks deepened losses as investors weighed the impact of the potential tax hike on the wealthy in the United States on social spending. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.94 percent, with the

April 23, 2021

BlackRock sells some of Coway stake

The world‘s largest asset management firm BlackRock has sold a 1.18 percent stake in South Korea’s home appliance rental service firm Coway for 50 billion won ($44.7 million), a filing showed Thursday. Following the transactions, the combined equity holding of BlackRock Fund Advisors and 13 affiliated entities in Coway has been reduced to 3.83 percent, and is no longer subject to filing obligations as a blockholder of the company, which specializes in door-to-door rental services o

April 22, 2021

Koreans favor fintech apps over those of banks: report

South Koreans used fintech company apps nearly nine times more than those operated by traditional banks every month last year, a report showed on Thursday, suggesting rapid growth of the digital finance market driven by its young and tech-savvy population. According to global mobile app analytics firm App Annie, mobile users of the nation’s top five fintech apps, such as payment solution Kakao Pay, Toss, and Kakao Bank, used the apps 225 times a month on average last year, tantamount to

April 22, 2021

Dunamu’s Q1 profit likely to exceed market expectations on surging coin trades

Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest crypto exchange, has been enjoying its profit surging with transactions exceeding that of global competitor Coinbase, market data showed Thursday. For the first quarter of this year, Dunamu, which operates Upbit, Korea’s largest digital coin exchange by transaction volume, is expected to see revenue of 590 billion won ($528 million) with extreme profit rates. The company’s estimated operating profit is 544 billion won and net profit at

April 22, 2021

Seoul stocks rebound on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks rebounded Thursday as investors sought oversold stocks after the benchmark index took a breather the previous session. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 5.86 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 3,177.52 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth some 14.6 trillion won ($13.1 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 467 to 383. Foreigners sold a net 147 billion won, and insti

April 22, 2021

SK’s battery material unit eyes W2.25tr mega IPO in May

SK ie technology, a wholly owned battery materials subsidiary under SK Innovation, said Thursday that it was looking to raise nearly 2.25 trillion won ($2.02 billion) in fresh funds via an initial public offering on South Korea’s main bourse next month. While it plans to float about 21.4 million shares on the Kospi market in a price band of 78,000-105,000 won, some 8.55 million new shares are set to be issued. SK Innovation will sell 12.83 million SKIET shares for the IPO. The exact sh

April 22, 2021

Hana sets W60tr goal for ESG plan by 2030

South Korea’s Hana Financial Group announced Thursday it has set a goal to pour 60 trillion won ($53.7 billion) into its long-term environmental, social and governance finance plan. Under its ESG financing blueprint, the group will issue relevant bonds worth 25 trillion won, loans worth 25 trillion won, fund management worth 2 trillion won and other related investments worth 10 trillion won by 2030. In line with its ESG financing goals, Hana aims to achieve carbon neutrality in its int

April 22, 2021

Impact investing scene faces call for measurement tool

South Korea’s impact investing scene is facing a call for a standardized tool to measure the social impact a startup generates via its business, as the demand to address social challenges is on the rise and more young entrepreneurs are looking to take on the challenges. Such a tool is key to leveraging social ventures’ impact and sustaining their solution for international problems in the long run, in order to assure investors that their investment goes to the right social ventures,

April 22, 2021

Shinhan Asset to shy away from domestic equities with low ESG scores

Seoul-based Shinhan Asset Management said Thursday it plans to implement an equity investing framework associated with the environmental, social and governance factors for its domestic large-cap equity funds. Starting in May, 16 publicly pooled domestic equity funds managed by the fifth-largest asset management firm in South Korea must have at least 70 percent exposure to stocks that received the integrated ESG ratings of “BB” or above. The same strategy has so far been exercised

April 22, 2021

Daily turnover of securities market jumps 18.5% in Q1

The daily turnover of South Korea's securities market soared more than 18 percent in the first quarter amid a stock market rally, data showed Thursday. According to the Korea Securities Depository, the daily amount of local stock and bond transactions settled by the agency averaged 30.7 trillion won ($27.5 billion) in the January-March period, up 18.5 percent from three months earlier. Compared with a year earlier, the daily turnover was up 6.9 percent. The average daily turnover of the count

April 22, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as investors sought to buy oversold stocks after the benchmark index took a breather the previous session. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 20.69 points, or 0.65 percent, to 3,192.35 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came to a strong start after the Kospi slumped 1.52 percent the previous session under increased valuation pressure. Investor sentiment remained strong, backed by rosy speculations about soli

April 22, 2021