Corporate watchdog chief vows stern measures against unfair biz practices

The chief of South Korea's corporate watchdog said Thursday that his agency will get tough on any unfair business practices."Unfair terms of contracts for subcontractors and any other business practices, such as an unreasonable cut in selling prices, would be targeted by our investigation," Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo said during a meeting with heads of ship-parts suppliers in Busan.The FTC has been stressing that it will promote fair business practices and take stern me

June 28, 2018

Watchdog to probe 3 banks' loan interest miscalculation

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Wednesday it will inspect three banks alleged to have overcharged borrowers for more loans by incorrectly calculating the interest. On Tuesday, KEB Hana Bank, Citibank Korea and Kyongnam Bank were revealed to have taken a combined 2.7 billion won ($2.4 million) in revenue from information input errors such as omitting the borrowers’ income or collateral in lending rate calculations. The Financial Supervisory Service said they will be first lookin

June 27, 2018

[Advertorial] KRX moves to boost coverage of small cap shares through new web portal

The Korea Exchange, South Korea‘s sole market operator, has moved to boost investor attention to small cap shares through a new web portal launched in May.The core function of the web portal, dubbed “Smile,” is to release technology analysis reports of small-cap companies that have little analyst coverage. Analysts in Korea have found it hard to cover all listed shares -- the number of which amounts to 2,000 in the top-tier Kospi and the second-tier Kosdaq combined. By tea

June 25, 2018

Bills on P2P lending, cryptocurrency still pending in National Assembly

Lawmakers have proposed bills to regulate peer-to-peer lending and cryptocurrencies, but the bills have gained little momentum in the National Assembly, industry watchers said Monday.Rep. Min Byung-doo of the ruling Democratic Party and Rep. Kim Su-min of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party filed two separate bills to regulate P2P lending firms in July last year and in February, respectively.With the bills still pending in the National Assembly, financial authorities have been struggling to t

June 25, 2018

Woori Bank secures Korea's largest offshore branch network on takeover in Cambodia

Woori Bank has acquired Cambodia’s microfinance institution VisionFund Cambodia, becoming a South Korean financial company with the largest offshore retail branch network. Through the acquisition, the Cambodian entity with $196 million total asset as of end-2017 earned the new name of WB Finance, according to Woori Bank Sunday.  The institution with 106 branches across the nation will play the role in microfinance deposit-taking, according to a Woori Bank spokesperson. As a resul

June 24, 2018

[Kosdaq Star] Genie Music garners investor attention on anticipated M&A

This is the 57th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed. Genie Music Corporation, South Korea‘s second-largest music streaming and downloading platform operator by monthly active users, is gaining investor attention on anticipation that it will shake up the local industry through a forthcoming acquisition deal. On Friday, Genie Music’s market cap in market‘s close came to 337.5 billion won ($303.4 million), the 153rd-larg

June 24, 2018

Court grants arrests of ex-Samsung Securities employees for selling bogus shares

Three former Samsung Securities employees were arrested on Thursday for selling unauthorized shares mistakenly given to them as dividends in April.The Seoul Nambu District Court approved the arrest warrants sought for three of the four former employees by the prosecution, citing risk of flight and/or evidence tempering. The court said one of the four did not require to be placed under arrest as the person did not appear to have actively participated in the wrongdoing.The former employees face ch

June 21, 2018

Corporate watchdog chief vows to step up self-reform efforts

The chief of South Korea's corporate watchdog said Thursday that his agency will redouble its efforts to regain the trust of citizens amid the prosecution's probe into alleged job irregularities involving former senior officials.On Wednesday, investigators raided the offices of the Fair Trade Commission as part of an investigation into allegations that former senior officials of the anti-trust watchdog landed jobs they were not supposed to after retirement.Investigators from the Seoul Central Pr

June 21, 2018

Geopolitical risks persist on Korean Peninsula: Moody‘s

Global credit rating agency Moody‘s Investors Service said Wednesday that uncertainty related to the geopolitical risks on the Korean Peninsula persists even after the recent series of summits and peace mood concerning North Korea.“The key constraining factor restriction to South Korea’s credit rating is its geopolitical risk,” Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s, said in a press conference held in Seoul.“The fact that the

June 20, 2018

Bithumb freezes accounts after W35b of cryptocurrencies stolen

Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in trade volume, said Wednesday it would suspend transactions in user accounts after some 35 billion won ($31.6 million) worth of assets were stolen.The financial loss stemmed from “abnormal outside access” that occurred from Tuesday night until Wednesday morning, its spokesperson said.  “(Bithumb) will suspend all money deposits or withdrawals, until we secure the stability of the service,” read the

June 20, 2018

[Herald Interview] Diversifying channels for foreign worker remittances

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 17th installment. -- Ed.Foreign workers in South Korea from Southeast Asia or South Asia have faced various hurdles when remitting their income here to a home country.There are language barriers in financial services offered by banks, hefty commission charges and differences in banking service environments, to name a few.Using schemes such as collateral cash pooling, cros

June 19, 2018

Arrest warrants sought for 4 Samsung Securities officials in dividend error probe

Prosecutors have filed for arrest warrants for four officials at Samsung Securities Co. for knowingly selling bogus shares that were issued to them by the firm by mistake, a prosecution office said Tuesday. The four officials face charges of fraudulent trading, committing fraud using digital devices and embezzlement in violation of the Capital Market Act, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office said.They will be arraigned for a review of their writs at a district court Wednesday. Pr

June 19, 2018

Won breaches 7-month low against dollar

South Korea’s local currency fell for four consecutive trading days and breached a seven-month low against the US dollar, amid investor risk aversion and the strengthening dollar following growing fears of a US-China trade war.The dollar-to-won exchange rate came to 1,104.8 won in closing Monday, up 7.1 won compared to the previous session’s close Friday. The higher rate equals weaker won. The Korean won was the weakest in seven months since closing on Nov. 15, 2017 at 1,112.3 won ag

June 18, 2018

Woori Bank to seek approval for holding company structure

South Korea’s Woori Bank is set to apply for regulatory approval Tuesday to adopt a financial holding company structure.Following a regular board of directors’ meeting Tuesday, the bank will submit a plan for the restructuring to the Financial Services Commission, a financial regulator, according to the company. If the bank manages to earn a regulatory nod from the FSC by mid-November, the reform plan will be confirmed in the shareholders meeting at the end of this year. A new holdin

June 18, 2018

Household debt crisis shows little sign of abating: data

The increasing pace of household credit in South Korea showed little sign of abating, data showed Sunday, and the lingering debt crisis is likely to affect Korean households‘ finance amid central bank pressure for a key rate hike in tandem with the US Fed hike last week.Total credit to households as a percentage of gross domestic product came to 94.8 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2017, up 2.2 percentage points from the year prior, according to data by the Bank for International Settl

June 17, 2018

Prosecution indicts 38 bank officials for hiring misconduct

The prosecution has indicted 38 officials from South Korean commercial and provincial banks, including former and incumbent chiefs, on charges of exerting inappropriate influence on entry-level employment, in the latest development in the local financial sector’s hiring scandal.The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Sunday announced it had sent the officials, including KEB Hana Bank Chief Executive Ham Young-joo and ex-CEO of Woori Bank Lee Kwang-goo, to trial. While Ham and Lee were boo

June 17, 2018

Banks set to jack up lending rates after US rate hike

South Korean banks are poised to raise their lending rates after the key interest rate in the Unites States reached the 2 percent range, market sources said Sunday.As widely expected, the US Fed raised its rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of between 1.75 percent and 2 percent last week, signaling that two more rate increases may be on the cards this year.According to the sources, COFIX, a benchmark lending rate for mortgage loans, was 1.82 percent for new loans as of Saturday,

June 17, 2018

Police begin probe into Coinrail hacking attack

The South Korean police began an investigation on Monday after Korea’s seventh largest crypto exchange Coinrail lost more than 40 billion ($37 million) in altcoins in an apparent attack by hackers over the weekend. “We secured the access history of Coinrail servers and we are in the process of analyzing them,” said a police spokesperson.  The police said it would figure out whether the leakage of the cryptocurrencies are caused by hacking or computer network problems. On M

June 11, 2018

Prosecutors raid Shinhan Bank in probe into hiring irregularities

Prosecutors raided the head office of Shinhan Bank on Monday as part of an investigation into allegations that its officials gave special favors to children of the bank's ranking officials, allowing them to take jobs at the lender. Investigators from the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office were sent to search the bank's human resources and inspection departments to confiscate evidence, the prosecution said. They also searched residences of some of the officials. Prosecutors launched a pro

June 11, 2018