Banks to adopt tougher mortgage rules in H2

All banks will be required to adopt tougher guidelines for mortgage loans in the second half of this year, officials said Sunday, in accordance with the government's latest push to curb household debt. The decision was made last Friday at a meeting of financial regulators, senior bank executives and other financial institutions, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.Currently, people's ability to repay home mortgages is calculated on the basis of their home mortgage principal and

May 27, 2018

Banks to adopt unified authentication certificate in July

South Korean banks are planning to adopt a unified authentication certificate for online transactions in July to enhance customers' convenience, industry people said Sunday.Eighteen members of the Korean Federation of Banks plan to introduce the unified certificate named BankSign in July to allow customers to make online financial transactions using their PIN numbers, secret patterns or fingerprints, a bank official said.Customers can download the BankSign from each bank's application and use it

May 27, 2018

[Herald Interview] Crypto frenzy to give way to market sophistication

Four years have passed since Alex Tapscott, then a Canadian investment banker, published a seminal white paper that pictures bitcoin blockchain’s potential financial use free of intermediaries.The 32-page paper titled “A Bitcoin Governance Network” -- generated upon the request of his father, the author of “Wikinomics” Don Tapscott -- laid the foundation for the 368-page “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and

May 25, 2018

Stock market faces limited impact from summit collapse

South Korea‘s stock markets erased their morning loss in the afternoon Friday, dwarfing investor concerns about US President Donald Trump’s announcement to cancel a planned summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un in June. In Friday closing, the top-tier stock market Kospi edged down 0.2 percent from Thursday‘s close, narrowing down 0.9 percent loss in early morning trade. The tech-heavy Kosdaq capped its loss to 0.6 percent, from 1.6 percent in the morning. On Kospi, foreign

May 25, 2018

Cancellation of US-NK summit expected to have limited impact on S. Korean market: BOK

The recent cancellation of the US-North Korea summit will likely have a limited impact on the South Korean financial market, a senior central bank official said Friday.The Bank of Korea held an emergency meeting at 8:30 a.m., hours after US President Donald Trump released his letter to scrap the planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore.The closed-door meeting was chaired by Yoon Myun-shik, the senior deputy governor of the BOK, with several senior officials at

May 25, 2018

BOK freezes key rate on emerging market woes

South Korea’s central bank kept the interest rate steady at 1.5 percent for six straight months in a unanimous board decision Thursday, citing external uncertainties due to an upshot in capital influx and currency woes from emerging markets.Despite relatively solid economic growth at home and abroad, the lingering uncertainties and low inflationary pressure on the demand side here led to the “accommodative monetary policy stance,” according to the seven-member Monetary Policy B

May 24, 2018

CME sanctions Hana Financial Investment's derivatives trading

US exchange operator CME Group has immediately suspended South Korea’s brokerage Hana Financial Investment‘s access to electronic trading or clearing platforms and markets run by the US derivatives exchange operator.Following the disciplinary action effective starting Tuesday, customers of the Korean securities firm are being banned from trading futures or options on CME Group’s platforms including Globex, using Hana‘s home trading system. The access will be denied for 60

May 23, 2018

Finance minister says Africa can greatly benefit from 4th industrial revolution

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Tuesday that Africa can greatly benefit from changes being brought on by the fourth industrial revolution.In a gathering of the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) meeting on the sidelines of the weeklong annual African Development Bank (AfDB) gathering in Busan, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said that while the continent may not have traditional industrial foundations, a bold adoption of the latest technological changes could transform the reg

May 22, 2018

[Herald Interview] Gopax seeks to win back public trust in cryptocurrency

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 15th installment. - Ed.Four cryptocurrency exchanges -- Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- have dominated South Korean trades on the highly volatile market, riding the bandwagon of futuristic technology and a wave of speculation. But with the volatile market now facing a waning public trust, cryptocurrency exchange Gopax, through its six-month operation, is seeking to

May 22, 2018

Korean banks to see eased regulation on offshore expansion

Banks in South Korea will see eased regulation when opening physical offshore units, as a revision bill gained approval from the Cabinet on Monday.  Following the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Banking Act, banks will be exempt from the obligation to report to authorities about the establishment of foreign offices or branches prior to the setup, unless the investment into the foreign unit exceeds 1 percent of its capital. Before the revision, banks were required to submit a repor

May 21, 2018

Kospi-listed firms see higher indebtedness in 2017: KRX

Companies listed on South Korea’s top-tier stock market Kospi saw their debt-to-capital ratio come to 111.4 percent in 2017, up 0.9 percentage point on-year, data showed Monday. The combined amount of liabilities of Kospi-listed firms reached 1,182.8 trillion won ($1.1 trillion), up 2.5 percent compared to a year prior, whereas the volume of capital came to 1,061.9 trillion won, up 1.7 percent, according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange.The market operator analyzed data on 598 firms

May 21, 2018

Sizable number of companies struggling to repay debt: think tank

A sizable number of South Korean companies are hard pressed to repay their outstanding debt with the profit they make, a situation that could expose them to more risks amid a steady rise in interest rates, a local think tank said Sunday. The LG Economic Research Institute said 11.8 percent of local businesses are not able to effectively pay back their dues with their earnings from normal business operations.It said this percentage had actually fallen from 14.2 percent in 2012 to 8.8 percent thre

May 20, 2018

Loan-deposit spread of local banks hit 3 1/2 year-high in Q1: BOK

The average loan-deposit spread of local lenders reached a 3 1/2 year high of 2.35 percent in the first quarter of this year, the central bank said Sunday.   According to the Bank of Korea, the spread is the largest since the 2.44 percent tallied in the third quarter of 2014. It said the gap between interest paid by banks to their savings account holders and the interest rate for outstanding loans had fallen to 2.14 percentage points in the July-September period of 2016, but the number

May 20, 2018

Woori Bank to become holding firm by 2019

Woori Bank Co., South Korea's third-largest commercial bank, said Sunday it will transform itself into a holding company by early next year to as part of effort to expand its business portfolio. Woori Bank said the decision is aimed at expanding its businesses from traditional banking to asset management, real estate and other financial services. The bank, which is 18.5 percent owned by the government, said it aims to establish the holding company by early 2019, taking consideration of time need

May 20, 2018

With frenzy waning, cryptocurrency operators forced to seek new paths

As warnings of a bursting bubble and toughening state regulations have led to a drastic downturn of South Korea's digital currency market, local exchanges are struggling over how to remain viable going forward.Some have moved to diversify their businesses by making the most out of blockchain technology, but a series of incidents that have damaged public trust in the system seems to be holding them back, market watchers said Sunday.  Last week, Bithumb announced the withdrawal of its planned

May 20, 2018

Ledger-free blockchain to tokenize 1st business

PureChain, a ledger-free blockchain running on an inter-device communication system, seeks to tokenize its first business that it expects to shape the “gift economy,” its developers said Thursday.Called “Colorchain,” the new decentralized platform by Singapore-headquartered Pax Datatech will have its tokens distributed using PureChain’s technology that does not require a third-party consensus or a process for user authentication.PureChain is a decentralized system p

May 17, 2018

Citibank Korea reports 6.7% rise in Q1 profit

Citibank Korea Inc. said Tuesday its net profit for the first quarter of this year rose 6.7 percent on-year, helped by stringent cost-cutting efforts.　Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup Inc., posted a net profit of 73 billion won (US$6.8 million) for the January-March quarter.　Its net interest margin (NIM), a measurement of profitability, climbed 0.08 percentage point on-quarter to 2.78 percent last quarter, the bank said. 　Citibank Korea has closed 90 of its 126 retail-bank

May 15, 2018

Korean stocks newly added to MSCI EM moderately rally

Large and mid-cap South Korean stocks set to be added to global and regional equity indexes by MSCI moderately rallied Tuesday, after an announcement by the US index publisher to rebalance its indexes. 　MSCI, formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International, is an American provider support tool widely used as investment guidance.　In the May 2018 Semi-Annual Index Review for the MSCI Equity Indexes released Monday, MSCI unveiled five Korean won-denominated shares to be added starting June 1. New to

May 15, 2018

[Photo News] Commemorating cultural heritage

COMMEMORATING CULTURAL HERITAGE -- The state-owned Korea Minting and Security Printing Corp. unveiled Monday in Seoul commemorative medals that depict a now-defunct Korean consulate in Washington, built some 130 years ago. The cultural heritage building was repatriated by the government in 2012, about a century after being sold to the US upon the start of Japanese occupation in 1910. (Yonhap)

May 14, 2018

[Kosdaq Star] 3-D inspection tech pioneer Koh Young avoids market slump

This is the 55th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed. While leading sectors of South Korea’s second-tier stock market Kosdaq have suffered downward pressure over the past few weeks, some powerhouses have pulled through.One of the firms is Koh Young Technology, which has striven to make a linear growth since it was listed a decade ago. On the back of it was its earnings increase with its unrivaled tech prowess suitable for manufact

May 14, 2018