South Korea’s five major banks cut over 1,570 jobs and shut down 238 brick-and-mortar branches last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed them toward digitalization, industry data showed Wednesday. According to data compiled by the Korea Federation of Banks, KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup shed a combined 238 offline branches and offices on-year to 3,546 as of end-December. While local lenders have been steadily shutting down their brick-and-mortar operations, the figur

Market March 3, 2021

South Korea’s central bank said Tuesday that is has decided to participate in the Group of 20’s roadmap on enhancing cross-border payments, focused on lowering the cost of the transactions. According to the Bank of Korea, the G20 plans to carry out a set of 19 measures, including increased adoption of payment versus payment system, stronger cooperation among central banks for cross-border liquidity supply, connecting payment settlement systems among economies and development of a s

Economy March 2, 2021

South Korea’s financial authorities plan to launch an industry-wide probe into insurers selling foreign currency insurance -- which has been gaining popularity here in recent years -- next month, on allegations of possible misselling of the high-risk products, sources said Friday. When customers subscribe to foreign currency insurance in Korea, they pay an insurance premium with foreign currency, the most popular being the US dollar, and receive payments with the same currency. The natio

Market Feb. 26, 2021

South Korea’s central bank on Thursday decided to maintain its previous 3 percent growth outlook for the nation’s gross domestic product this year, with its chief suggesting that vaccination will determine its economic development. Following its first monetary policy meeting of the year, the Bank of Korea decided to keep its interest-rate at a record-low of 0.5 percent, while keeping up the 3 percent growth rate for 2021. The growth rate for this year was announced in November. It

Economy Feb. 25, 2021

South Korea’s Finance Minister said Wednesday that the state tax benefit program for “good landlords” – those who voluntarily reduce rent to ease burden on tenants – would be extended by another six months to support businesses hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The voluntary program – launched in April last year – has been rewarding landlords with a tax credit of 50 percent-to-reduction of rent. The program’s deadline has been already extended once f

Economy Feb. 24, 2021

Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to a revision bill that would enable the Financial Services Commission to collect online payment data, lamenting that the regulator lacks understanding of the separate but complementary roles of the two institutions. Lee was striking back at FSC chief Eun Sung-soo, who refuted the central bank’s open criticism of the bill it likened to “Big Brother” of George Orwell’s landmark dystopian novel “1984

Economy Feb. 24, 2021

The Export-Import Bank of Korea said Monday it plans to set up a global environmental, social and governance-related fund worth at least $200 billion won ($180 million) to support local firms seeking to expand businesses overseas. The size of the fund could be expanded and the state-run bank will invest a combined 50 billion won in the fund. Once the manager of the fund is determined, it would focus on supporting the global forays of businesses under seven areas tied to the Green New Deal an

Market Feb. 23, 2021

Recent reports of Citigroup’s possible divestiture plans for its South Korean subsidiary, as well as its other Asia-Pacific consumer units, shed light on how foreign banks are losing their footing in the local market. Over the past decade, many foreign banks have already pulled out of the Korean market or scaled down their business. British investment bank Barclays pulled out after 39 years in 2017, following fellow UK-based lender HSBC’s move to halt its retail banking services he

Market Feb. 22, 2021

Citigroup has been mulling divestiture of its South Korean banking subsidiary, among other international consumer units, but is treading cautiously, reports and statements released as of Sunday showed. According to Bloomberg Law on Friday, the New York-based multinational banking giant has been considering divesting units tied to retail banking across the Asia-Pacific region, including those in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. The reports precede the rise of Citigroup’s in

Market Feb. 21, 2021

South Korea’s Finance Minister said Thursday that the details of the COVID-19 financial support programs nearing their expiration will be “decided by early March,” indicating the government’s willingness to continue the programs. “The details of all the financial sector’s loan programs regarding its extension of maturities and delay of interest payments will be decided by early March,” Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said ahead o

Economy Feb. 18, 2021

South Korea’s money supply gained a record amount of currency and other liquid instruments on-year in December, central bank data showed Wednesday, triggering alarm bells about inflation. The country’s M2 amounted to 3,191.3 trillion won ($2.9 trillion) as of end-December, gaining 260.9 trillion won on-year, showed preliminary data compiled by the Bank of Korea. In terms of percentiles, the M2 increased 9.8 percent on-year and 0.4 percent on-month. The M2 is a calculation of the mo

Economy Feb. 17, 2021

Heads of five major banking groups here on Tuesday agreed to extend their joint loan deferment program for local businesses hit by the COVID-19 pandemic for another six months at an exclusive meeting with Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo. “The chiefs of the banking groups agreed to extend the program for another six months,” Eun told the press following a roundtable meeting held with the group executives at the Korea Federation of Banks headquarters in central Se

Market Feb. 16, 2021

South Korea’s property tax rate compared with its gross domestic product was the third highest among 37 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members in 2018, data showed Monday. The data compiled by Rep. Yoo Gyeong-joon of the main opposition People Power Party came amid growing concerns that the Moon Jae-in administration’s set of real estate measures -- focused on tightening loan regulations and levying heavier taxes on multiple homeowners -- failed to cool down t

Economy Feb. 15, 2021

The upheavals brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have hastened the challenges faced by South Korea’s central bank, from digital transformation to demand for its bigger role to strive for employment stability in carrying out monetary policies. With the quickly changing economic and financial landscape, central banks around the world are scurrying to digitalize themselves. The People’s Bank of China recently entered the final stages of its own digital currency development and other cent

Economy Feb. 13, 2021

Banking groups have posted record-high net profits for fiscal year 2020, but their dividend payouts have been reduced by roughly 6 percentage points upon advice from the country’s regulator, industry data released as of Sunday showed. Four out of five major banking groups here have so far posted or are expected to release record-high annual net-profits last year, buoyed by an increase in loans and the heated stock market. As of Sunday, KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group and Ha

Market Feb. 7, 2021