Brokerages' net profit hits 10-year high

´South Korean brokerages’ combined yearly net profit in 2017 hit a 10-year high, mainly on the back of a stock market boom that led to an upshot in revenue from brokerage fees and trades of shares and derivatives, data showed Tuesday.The total net profit for the 55 securities firms came to 3.83 trillion won ($3.57 billion) in 2017, up 79.6 percent from a year prior, according to a preliminary set of data by the Financial Supervisory Service. The figure was the highest since 2007, whe

Feb. 27, 2018

Global anti-money laundering body briefed on Korea's obligations on cryptocurrency

Korea's financial regulator has briefed a global anti-money laundering body on its obligations related to cryptocurrency transactions to tackle money laundering, officials said Monday.Korea's anti-money laundering guidelines for cryptocurrency trading were the first to be drawn up among members of the Financial Action Task Force, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.At its regular meeting of 37 members in Paris last week, member states also urged the global body to improve the u

Feb. 26, 2018

Assets under management in Korea hit record high in 2017

South Korean financial firms’ assets under management hit a record high of 950 trillion won ($880.9 billion) in 2017, up 4.7 percent from the previous year, data showed Sunday.The hike in the volume of professionally managed assets was driven by a surge in private funds’ increase in property investment, as well as increased capital for discretionary investment in domestic shares and overseas bonds, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service.Despite the recor

Feb. 25, 2018

[Herald Interview] Corda eyes private, inclusive global banking network: R3 chief engineer

Distributed ledgers like the blockchain system are increasingly setting a new standard for paperwork-free global banking in various financial areas, such as the management of a cash pool for currency exchanges or payments, as well as trade finance. Spearheading the trend to minimize and possibly eliminate the manual business process in interbank transactions is a technology called “smart contract,” through which records of direct transactions between parties can be protected on a dec

Feb. 25, 2018

Hana Financial seeks further momentum from non-banking biz

After enjoying a prosperous 2017, South Korea’s financial players are now facing a challenging year ahead, amid escalating competition in the digital financing sector, government pressure on household debt control and incoming financial consumer law.Hana Financial Group, the nation’s third-largest banking group in assets, is determined to hold ground and prolong its uptrend by maximizing the synergy between its banking and non-banking businesses.It is also planning to expand financia

Feb. 21, 2018

Korea-Japan political gridlock haunts currency swap renewal: BOK Gov.

Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said Tuesday that while lingering political deadlock has held back talks to renew a currency swap deal with Japan, Korea would not be rushing it, during his visit to Zurich to sign a swap agreement with Swiss National Bank.“The talks of extending a deal (with the Japanese central bank) are being suspended since the deal expired, in the wake of a diplomatic and political row (between Korea and Japan),” Lee told Korean correspondents in Zurich on Tuesday.

Feb. 21, 2018

Hana extends patronage to national luge team

South Korea’s national luge team -- made up of nine sliders and six coaches – improved their performance in the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games overall.In the team relay, Korea climbed up three notches and came in about 26 seconds faster compared to Sochi Winter Games in 2014. In the women’s individual event, Sung Eun-ryung jumped 11 notches to finish in 18th with an improvement of about 20 seconds.On the back of such performance stood Hana Financial Group, which has extended sup

Feb. 21, 2018

Currency swap with Switzerland proves outside trust of Korean economy

ZURICH -- The bilateral currency swap deal with Switzerland proves that South Korea's economic fundamentals remain strong and there's trust in fiscal policy, the head of South Korea's central bank has said. Lee Ju-yeol, governor of the Bank of Korea, made the remarks Tuesday after signing the currency swap deal with the chairman of the Swiss National Bank's governing board, Thomas Jordan. The three-year swap agreement enables Korean won and Swiss francs to be purchased and repurchased between th

Feb. 21, 2018

NH NongHyup acquires patent for call assessment system

South Korea’s agriculture cooperative-based NH NongHyup Bank developed a system to assess the quality of its customer calls in November and recently had a patent registered for the technology, officials said Tuesday.Built and operated on artificial intelligence and big data, the system gathers customer phone call records, sorts them out according to demands and designates an optimized level of customer service.“The new system will help us keep a more detailed watch on our financial c

Feb. 20, 2018

[Herald Interview] Finda envisions online financial marketplace

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 10th installment. - Ed.Despite living in the era of information technology, financial consumers in South Korea have found it hard to gain access to trustworthy information online about financial products to compare and choose what suits the best.Lee Hye-min, co-chief executive officer of financial technology startup Finda, said financial consumers’ basic necessities

Feb. 20, 2018

Korea to support 'normal transactions' of cryptocurrencies

Korea's financial regulator said Tuesday the government will support "normal transactions" of cryptocurrencies, about three weeks after it banned their trading through anonymous bank accounts.The remarks by Choe Heung-sik, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, were seen as being in stark contrast to the government's previous stance that it could consider shutting down local virtual currency exchanges.Korea launched a real-name trading system for cryptocurrency transactions Jan

Feb. 20, 2018

Govt. considering easing tax burden on smaller firms: finance minister

The government is considering easing the tax burden on smaller firms and extending more financing to bolster their exports, the country's chief economic policymaker said Tuesday.In a meeting with top executives of small and medium enterprises, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon also vowed to lift regulatory hurdles facing them in doing business. "The government is mulling a set of measures to ease the tax burden on smaller firms," Kim said. "We are also looking at various options to b

Feb. 20, 2018

Non-financial firms to be allowed to engage in currency exchange

Non-bank institutions will be allowed to directly engage in currency exchange business starting next month as part of a broader deregulation drive to promote the local financial technology sector, the finance ministry said Tuesday.Under revised regulations on currency exchange, a qualified fintech firm will be able to offer a currency exchange service of up to $2,000 per person through their online platforms. Such fintech firms are required to make a reserve against potential claims from custome

Feb. 20, 2018

Lendit's accumulated volume of loan tops W100b

Lendit, a peer-to-peer lending platform operator in South Korea, has extended a combined 101.8 billion won ($95.4 million) in nearly 7,300 consumer loans as of Monday to midrange borrowers seeking lower interest rates, according to the fintech startup Monday. After its 33 months of operation, Lendit marked the first local P2P lending platform operator fully devoted to consumer loan products to see the accumulated volume of loans top the 100 billion won mark, the company said. Borrowers from

Feb. 19, 2018

Raonsecure to develop blockchain-based biometric authentication for online banking

Raonsecure, a South Korean biometric authentication firm, has teamed up with Seoul-based blockchain developer The Loop, to develop an authentication system for online financial services.The firms signed a memorandum of understanding on Feb. 12.  Through the partnership, Raonsecure is expected to build a biometric authentication system on a decentralized platform provided by The Loop.Raonsecure follows the “fast identity online” security standard, which uses fingerprint, iris and

Feb. 19, 2018

Sales of cryptocurrency operators soar eightyfold: data

SEJONG -- Sales of local cryptocurrency exchange operators are presumed to have soared more than eightyfold in 2017 compared with a year earlier, data showed Sunday.According to the data released by Rep. Park Kwang-on of the ruling Democratic Party, accumulated commission-related sales of some 30 cryptocurrency exchange operators are presumed to have reached 700 billion won ($648 million) as of the end of last year, compared with an estimated amount of 8 billion won as of the end of 2016. South

Feb. 18, 2018

S. Korean shares to face lingering uncertainties next week

South Korean stocks could experience more volatility next week as investors move to rebalance their portfolios to reflect the latest economic data and prospects for the US interest rate following the Lunar New Year holiday, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 2,421.83 points on Wednesday, the last trading session of this week, with the traditional holiday beginning on Thursday. It marked a 2.39 percent gain compared to last Friday. The local market re

Feb. 17, 2018

Kona I joins Visa biometric card pilot

Smart card manufacturer Kona I said Tuesday it has been selected as card supplier of a pilot project by US card firm Visa to develop a biometric payment card using fingerprint recognition technology. The Seoul-based firm will supply battery-free card components featuring energy harvesting technology to create pilots that capture, store and validate the card holder‘s fingerprint on the card, according to the firm. The move is expected to “endorse (Kona I’s) advanced technology a

Feb. 13, 2018

Seoul shares end higher on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks ended higher Monday helped by bargain hunting by retail investors and gains on Wall Street. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 21.61 points, or 0.91 percent, to close at 2,385.38. Trade volume was moderate at 344.76 million shares worth 6.41 trillion won ($5.91 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 458 to 361. The local market advanced after Wall Street recovered Friday to pare some of its earlier losses. The

Feb. 12, 2018

[IP in Korea] ‘Patent rights should be guaranteed for anyone’

Companies and individuals -- even nonpracticing entities, commonly referred to as “patent trolls” -- should not be restrained from or blamed for exercising their guaranteed patent rights in the market, according to the chief of a leading intellectual property service provider.“The core point of the patent system is to bestow legal rights upon new technology and allow the patent holder to derive consequent economic profits,” Lee Hyung-chil, president of Worldwide Intellect

Feb. 11, 2018