Securities firms fined for failing to identify Samsung chairman assets

South Korea‘s four securities firms have been slapped with a combined 3.4 billion won ($3.2 million) in fines for their failure to identify and verify assets owned by bedridden Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee under false-name accounts, watchdogs said Thursday.The amount of the fine equals 55 percent of face value of Lee’s financial assets under the accounts not owned by the chairman, which came to 6.2 billion won as of August 1993. The four companies -- Mirae Asset Daewoo, S

April 12, 2018

[Herald Interview] Banksalad relieves financial information overload

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 13th installment. - Ed.Despite having easy access to thousands of financial products in South Korea, as one of the world’s most wired countries, consumers often find most of them irrelevant and largely fail to figure out which offers the biggest financial advantage. In a bid to simplify the myriad of choices, former owner of a street food vender Kim Tae-hoon co-foun

April 12, 2018

Energi Mine enters Korea, seeks local partnership

Energi Mine, a UK-based energy efficiency rewards blockchain platform, has entered the South Korean market in efforts to gather examples of how its blockchain business can be applied to the real world economy, the company said in a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday.By incentivizing people with its digital token dubbed Energi Token when they contribute to reducing energy, such as by taking public transportation or purchasing energy efficient home appliances, the company said it aims to decen

April 11, 2018

[Newsmaker] Key pension funds pull plug on Samsung Securities

The National Pension Service ceased trading with Samsung Securities in the wake of the latest dividend error that revealed a blind spot in the brokerage system, officials said Tuesday.“Due to the serious problem in Samsung Securities’ stock trading stability, we stopped all direct stock trading on Monday,” said an official of the pension service.“Restrictions in other sectors such as trust management will be decided later in consideration of the financial authorities&rsqu

April 10, 2018

Payoneer launches Korea office, targeting SMEs selling globally via online marketplaces

Payoneer, a New York-based payments processing company, officially launched a new South Korea office Tuesday, targeting small and midsized businesses here that sell their products globally via online marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba.　“Launching Payoneer’s office in Korea shouldn’t come as a surprise. Korea is a fast-growing economy and the seventh biggest e-commerce market in the world,” said Payoneer’s General Manager for Direct Business Eyal Moldovan during a

April 10, 2018

Watchdog chides Samsung Securities for internal control void, begins inspection

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service on Monday began an investigation into Samsung Securities over it lacking internal controls to detect or correct a computational input error that caused slipshod dividend payments over 40,000 times larger than intended.The watchdog denounced the firm for its “severe” systemic flaw that enabled erroneously created virtual stocks to be traded like real assets.At a press conference Monday to unveil its plans to look into the fourth-larges

April 9, 2018

President appoints BOK chief to second term

President Moon Jae-in appointed the incumbent head of the central bank to a second term Monday, stressing the importance of stability in monetary policy.Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol was appointed to his second four-year term in a ceremony held at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.Lee's appointment came about a month after the president decided to retain the top central banker for a second term.The 65-year-old is the first person in more than four decades to have been appointed to a second

April 9, 2018

Labor union to demand Korean banks close during lunch

A labor union of South Korean bank employees is demanding bank branches here close during lunchtime in forthcoming collective bargaining talks.  The Korean Financial Industry Union was reported as saying Monday the proposal was designed to guarantee bank clerks get an hourlong lunch break. The KFIU is an umbrella group representing labor unions of over 30 financial institutions, including local commercial banks, provincial banks and co-ops.Korean banks, with few exceptions, are open to cust

April 9, 2018

Samsung Securities fiasco exposes stock trading loophole

A South Korean brokerage mistakenly paying 1,000 shares in dividends instead of 1,000 won ($0.93) due to a computational error Friday has exposed a major loophole in the nation’s stock trading system, prompting immediate intervention by regulators.Starting Monday, the Financial Supervisory Service will launch an inspection into internal system flaws at Samsung Securities, the nation’s fourth-largest brokerage, where the incident happened last week, officials said Sunday. The authorit

April 8, 2018

Korean banks' real interest rate in minus territory: BOK

Real interest rates offered by South Korean lenders fell into minus territory last year, with people effectively losing money if they make deposits, central bank data showed Sunday.The Bank of Korea said the average annual interest rate for savings accounts stood at 1.56 percent, compared with inflation that reached 1.9 percent, resulting in a real interest rate of minus 0.34 percent.It said average interest rate numbers for 2017 were the second lowest in history and marked the first time in six

April 8, 2018

Arrest warrants sought for cryptocurrency executives for fraud, embezzlement

Prosecutors on Friday requested court warrants to arrest four executives of two cryptocurrency exchanges on fraud and embezzlement charges.Kim Ik-hwan, head of Coinnest, and three others are accused of pocketing billions of won from clients' accounts by transferring the money to their own private accounts, according to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. A court review on the request will be held early Friday, it said. They were detained for questioning Wednesday.  Prosecutors

April 6, 2018

Short selling of Celltrion persists on Kospi

Contrary to market expectations for Celltrion to avoid short selling by moving from the second-tier Kosdaq market to the first-tier Kospi in February, the ratio of the firm’s short sellers have increased since then, data showed Thursday. Of the entire daily trading from Feb. 9 to Monday, short selling accounted for 13.8 percent. The figure saw an upshot from the yearly estimate until Feb. 9 this year, at 8.4 percent. By month, the average short selling ratio came to 13.6 percent in March,

April 5, 2018

Banks likely to strengthen screening for household loans in Q2: BOK

Local lenders are expected to tighten their guidelines on household loans in the second quarter of this year amid government-led measures to control the overheated real estate market, central bank data showed Thursday.The overall index measuring banks' "attitude" toward extending loans to households came to minus seven for the April-June period, compared with minus 10 a quarter earlier, according to data by the Bank of Korea.A reading below zero means banks will implement tougher scree

April 5, 2018

S. Korean crypto exchange CEO nabbed for embezzlement

The chief executive officer and high-ranking executives of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinnest were detained Wednesday on charges of fraud and embezzlement, according to prosecutors Thursday. This is the first time an operator of a cryptocurrency exchange in Korea has been charged.Prosecutors are seeking arrest warrants for the executives, including CEO Kim Ik-hwan, in the next two days. They are alleged to have swindled customers of digitized assets for their personal accounts, prosec

April 5, 2018

[Photo News] Future of digital currency

FUTURE OF DIGITAL CURRENCY -- Participants discuss the future of central bank digital currencies in a session at Deconomy 2018, held in Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. From left are: Jeff Paik, chief executive at Finector; Clark Thompson, solution architect at Consensys; Ian Grigg, partner at Block.one; Antony Lewis, director of research, CBDC strategy at R3; and Stanley Yong, global lead for CBDC at IBM. Yonhap

April 4, 2018

Chief of state-run credit backer offers to resign over extramarital affair

The chief of the state-run credit backer of SMEs on Wednesday offered to resign following a scandal over an extramarital affair. Kim Kyu-ok, who leads the Korea Technology Finance Corp., offered his resignation, according to Ministry of SMEs and Startups officials, following his alleged adultery. The ministry said it will decide soon whether it should conduct an audit or ask the police to investigate him.  Earlier Wednesday, local cable network JTBC reported that Kim has had an inappropriat

April 4, 2018

[News Focus] Tightened financial rules to weigh on Samsung’s insurance units

South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group is facing increased pressure to break away from its circular shareholding corporate governance, as its insurance units may have to sell off most of their affiliate stocks in compliance with reinforced financial regulations.Weighing further upon the group is the recent appointment of a former civic group activist and progressive lawmaker who is known for reformist conglomerate policies as the head of the nation’s financial market watchd

April 4, 2018

Foreign banks see shrinking gain from Korean branches

Foreign banks with branches in South Korea reported a decline in earnings here in 2017, on falling interest and trading income, data showed Wednesday.  The 38 branches from global banks across the globe had logged a combined 680.7 billion won ($642.8 million) of net income in 2017, down 10.6 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The branches suffered a drop in interest income by 58.3 billion won, or 5.2 percent on-year. The los

April 4, 2018

Cryptocurrency operators' profits soar in 2017: data

South Korea's cryptocurrency exchange operators reaped huge profits in 2017 on the back of the national frenzy over digital money, data showed Wednesday.The annual turnover of BTC Korea.com, which is in charge of local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, stood at 333.4 billion won ($315.6 million) in 2017, up a sharp 77 times on-year from 4.3 billion won. Its net profit jumped from 2.5 billion won to 427.2 billion won over the past year, according to the report by Vidente Co. The major source of in

April 4, 2018

Financial groups face tighter rules on internal transactions

South Korea’s top five financial conglomerates and two other financial heavyweights will be required to ease their intra-group transactions, especially their cross-shareholding structures, according to regulators.The Financial Services Commission on Tuesday announced a reinforced set of rules, obligating major financial companies to sell off their shares in non-financial affiliates in case such business practices may bring risks in the financial system. The regulation, which came as p

April 3, 2018