The South Korean won weakened to 1,345.5 won per US dollar on Tuesday, marking a fresh 13-year low, despite a warning that authorities would rein in speculative trading seen as behind the depreciation. The verbal warning, coming for a fourth time for the year, reflects growing volatility gripping the currency markets amid the persistent hawkish outlook on a US rate hike in September boosting the dollar’s safe-haven appeal. The key psychological threshold of 1,300 won is considered

Market Aug. 23, 2022

The South Korean won breached the key psychological threshold of 1,300 won per US dollar, weakening to 1,340.2 won before closing at 1,339.8 won in onshore trading Monday -- a new low in 13 years prompted by a hawkish outlook on a US Federal Reserve’s rate hike in September. The 1,300 mark -- last crossed in April 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis before June 2022 when it was touched again -- is considered a red flag for the economy. The benchmark Kospi lost 1

Market Aug. 22, 2022

Self-employed people and small businesses who have suffered major economic disruptions due to the pandemic will receive government support in writing off their debts as long as they pass a thorough screening process, the Financial Services Commission said Thursday. The plan -- revealed earlier to help the group repay loans they had taken out since the pandemic -- aims to reduce their debts, which the agency says needs to happen now because they could soon go bankrupt. But critics have said too

Economy Aug. 19, 2022

Companies on South Korea’s benchmark Kospi overall saw their combined operating profit in the first six months of this year rise 7 percent from a year earlier, thanks to Samsung Electronics, the biggest company on the main board by revenue. According to Korea Exchange data Friday, 696 firms on the Kospi reported 746 trillion won ($562.2 billion) in revenue between January and June, up 19 percent from the previous year. Operating profits came to 54 trillion won, a 7 percent jump. But the

Market Aug. 19, 2022

Investors are being discouraged from using 16 cryptocurrency services companies operating in South Korea without registration from the Financial Services Commission, the top financial regulator said Thursday. The firms, all foreign, are KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, XT.com, Bitrue, ZB.com, Bitglobal, CoinW, CoinEX, AAX, ZoomEX, Poloniex, BTCEX, BTCC, DigiFinex and Pionex. The firms are expected to face police probes for having failed to report to the agency their plans to engage in business with Kor

Market Aug. 19, 2022

President Yoon Seok-yeol has appointed a professor who specializes in insurance law and investor protection to lead the Fair Trade Commission, the presidential office said Thursday in a statement. Han Ki-jeong, who teaches commercial law at Seoul National University and led the private Korea Insurance Research Institute between 2016 and 2019, will help revitalize a free market economy the Yoon government seeks, according to the statement. “Han has long studied what consumers need and kno

Industry Aug. 18, 2022

A joint task force launched by the Financial Services Commission on Wednesday kicked off its first monthly meeting on setting up a framework for digital assets like bitcoin, a week after the top financial regulator said it would work to remove regulatory uncertainty facing South Korea’s crypto industry. Introducing a legal framework for cryptocurrencies is part of the larger deregulation initiative the FSC has been pursuing since President Yoon Suk-yeol, who had pledged to make that happe

Market Aug. 17, 2022

The Financial Supervisory Service will look into financial institutions that handled an unusually large volume of short selling when the local markets were jumpy, the watchdog’s chief said Tuesday, as retail investors step up calls for greater oversight over the practice they say leaves them outgunned by institutional investors. Individual investors have long complained that the bearish market practice that profits from a drop in share prices is not as rewarding as it should be as regulat

Market Aug. 16, 2022

More than half the companies surveyed by the Korea Enterprises Federation, one of the five major business lobby groups here, said Korea and Japan should settle their disputes and improve economic ties, especially in trade, the data showed Tuesday. Conducted from July 27 to Aug. 2, the survey polled 207 companies employing at least 30 workers and 57 percent of them backed the idea, saying efforts to take advantage of new trade deals like the RCEP and IPEF should take place once the two countries

Industry Aug. 16, 2022

Foreign holdings of South Koreans stocks on the benchmark Kospi dipped to 606.2 trillion won ($464.1 billion), or 30.51 percent of the total, Thursday -- the lowest level since August 2009 as fears over US Federal Reserve rate hikes and a possible recession have dampened investor optimism. Data from the Korea Exchange showed Sunday heavy net selling by foreign investors this year. They had offloaded 10.6 trillion won in shares as of Friday. The Kospi closed at 2,527.94 that day, a 15 percent dr

Market Aug. 15, 2022

South Korean e-commerce giant, Coupang, raised its earnings forecast for the year after posting its first-ever profit for the entire business in the second quarter, as bigger operating cost savings and higher membership fees improved profitability, the company said Thursday. The company is betting on positive annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, reversing the previous projection for a $400 million loss. The second quarter loss narrowed to $67.14 million, down 87

Industry Aug. 11, 2022

Bank loans to households in South Korea fell for the first time in four months in July, as rising interest rates and tighter loan curbs prompt Koreans to refinance their budget without banks’ help, Bank of Korea data showed Wednesday. As of July, loans stood at an estimated 1,060.5 trillion won ($810.1 billion), down 300 billion won from the previous month. Mortgage loans soared 2 trillion won to 791 trillion won in July from the previous month, having risen faster than a 1.4 trillion-w

Economy Aug. 10, 2022

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said Monday that efforts to set up a framework for digital assets like bitcoin were underway as part of its larger deregulation initiative to help companies start new businesses without having to worry about regulatory uncertainty. At a meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, the top financial regulator’s chief said his agency would divide cryptocurrencies into security and nonsecurity tokens, and use the existing law to regulate the former

Economy Aug. 10, 2022

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is starting a service offering loans to small businesses on its online platform while enabling its customers to pay for purchases in installments, a filing with the Financial Supervisory Service showed Monday. Coupang Financial, a subsidiary created in January of this year, will lead the new business the top financial watchdog approved Friday. Some analysts consider the expansion part of Coupang’s efforts to offset losses, which have grown over t

Technology Aug. 8, 2022

The International Finance Corporation said Friday that it named insider Ruth Horowitz as vice president for Asia and the Pacific, bringing in a veteran who most recently headed the group’s Asset Management Company, which invests in developing countries. Horowitz, who spent the last 13 years at the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, took office last Monday, highlighting fighting runaway fuel and food prices and climate change as her top priorities. “Now, with war-

Economy Aug. 8, 2022