Corporate retirement pension funds managed by South Korea’s major commercial banks posted poor returns in the first half of the year, data showed Thursday. Low yields have also drawn criticism from a lawmaker here, who called for swift adoption of improvement measures in operating such funds. 　 Retirement pension funds managed by top commercial lenders saw their yield rates hover at 1.69 percent on average, according to the state regulator Financial Supervisory Service’s data acqui

Market Oct. 9, 2020

South Korea’s central bank said Wednesday that it plans to start testing the distribution of its digital currency next year. The Bank of Korea announced in April that it had launched a 22-month pilot program that would run through December 2021. According to the BOK, the distribution and circulation test is the final part of the three-step pilot program. Phase 2, which focuses on analyzing related processes and seeking outside consulting, started recently. Phase 1, designing

Economy Oct. 7, 2020

A day after South Korea’s measures to ensure fiscal soundness for 2025 drew immediate flak from experts and the public alike for its time frame and "loopholes," the nation’s fiscal chief came to the defense of the rules Tuesday. The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced Monday that it aims to maintain the national debt-to-gross domestic product ratio below 60 percent, and its consolidated fiscal balance at minus 3 percent in 2025. The rules are to be exempted in a time

Economy Oct. 6, 2020

South Korea’s debt -- national, household and corporate -- surged to nearly 5,000 trillion won ($4.3 trillion) last year, hitting a record high, data showed Monday, fueling concerns of the heavier weight it would gain this year due to the coronavirus risks. The nation’s per capita national, household and corporate debt came to 2,200 trillion won, 1,600 trillion won and 1,100 trillion won in 2019, respectively, data compiled by a lawmaker serving on the National Assembly’s stra

Economy Oct. 5, 2020

More than 80 percent of applicants for reverse mortgages in recent years have been owners of high-rise apartments, data from the Korea Housing Finance Corp. showed Sunday, spurring concerns about inequitable access. Reverse mortgages were introduced in South Korea in 2007 and allow homeowners, mainly senior citizens, to receive payments on a monthly basis by borrowing against the value of their homes. From January to August, 6,636 people signed contracts with banks to borrow money by providi

Market Oct. 4, 2020

South Korean banks and their customers lost nearly 500 billion won ($428 million) from employees’ financial crimes -- including embezzlement and fraud -- in the last five years, data compiled by the nation’s financial watchdog showed Sunday. Twenty local lenders saw losses worth a combined 488.4 billion won through 186 cases from 2016 to June this year, according to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Rep. Lee Young, a lawmaker of the main opposition People Power

Market Oct. 4, 2020

A planned 20 trillion-won ($16.8 billion) fund tied to Korean New Deal projects would funnel money into 197 items under 40 different green and digital areas, South Korea’s finance minister said Monday. The fund -- which will be financed over the next five years -- will be established “early next year” and invest in areas including 5G, artificial intelligence, smart health care, renewable energy, robot technology and hydrogen vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Ministe

Economy Sept. 28, 2020

South Korea’s composite consumer index shed the most points in six months in September, feeling the impact of stricter social distancing rules following the COVID-19 resurgence, central bank data showed Friday. The index dropped 8.8 points on-month to 79.4 in September, which also marked the sharpest dip in six months and the first decline since April, according to data released by the Bank of Korea. A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists. The September reading broke th

Economy Sept. 25, 2020

London-based Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters said South Korea has the potential to rise as Asia’s key financial hub in a meeting with the head of the financial regulator here, the lender’s Korean subsidiary said Thursday. “(Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo and Winters) agreed on the potential of Seoul as Asia’s financial hub given the size of the Korean economy and Korea’s presence in global trade,” Standard Chartered Bank Korea

Market Sept. 24, 2020

Major South Korean lenders’ decision to invest some $100 million in a hotel and retail project at 20 Times Square in New York in 2018 has come back to bite them two years later, with the property’s foreclosure last year continuing to wreak havoc amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources said Thursday. In 2018, French Bank Natixis syndicated to local banks KB Kookmin, Hana and NH Nonghyup -- three of the five major lenders here -- and other Korean institutional investors. Some combined

Market Sept. 24, 2020

After completing a two-week self-quarantine period in South Korea, London-based Standard Chartered Bank CEO Bill Winters has been traveling back and forth between South Korea’s capital Seoul and Pangyo, touted as the nation’s Silicon Valley, meeting with a number of high-profile figures in the domestic financial technology industry in recent days, according to sources Tuesday. Winters was initially granted a quarantine exemption upon his arrival in the country on Aug. 30, but decide

Market Sept. 22, 2020

This is a part of a series exploring the governance structure of financial giants in South Korea and examining diversity and transparency in boardrooms. -- Ed. It was a 12.7 trillion won ($10.6 billion) government bailout that saved Woori Financial Group, then known as Hanvit Bank, in 1998 when it was reeling from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. For more than 20 years, the lender survived and kept its status as one of South Korea’s financial giants. But the remaining presence of state fu

Market Sept. 22, 2020

South Korea’s central bank warned Sunday that efforts by individual nations to prioritize their own citizens over others for access to a future coronavirus vaccine are likely to push back the time frame for the pandemic’s end. “There are projections that development of some of the vaccines will be complete by the second half of 2021,” the Bank of Korea said in its regular report on the global economy. “But there is a possibility that the end of the coronavirus p

Economy Sept. 20, 2020

Major South Korean banks are on the path of tightening their extension of personal unsecured loans, apparently responding to the financial authorities continued efforts to curb “excessive lending.” Outstanding personal loans extended by five major lenders here -- KB Kookmin, Shinhan, KEB Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup -- fell to 126.9 trillion won as of Thursday, down 243.6 billion won ($209.3 million) from the previous day, data showed Sunday. This marked a sharp turn from the extend

Market Sept. 20, 2020

For centuries, Chuseok has been one of the nation’s most cherished holidays -- a time for family gatherings, an occasion to share the joy of the harvest and honor the ancestors. This year, however, the holidays are expected to take a different turn with the coronavirus pandemic forcing families to follow strict social distancing guidelines. “I’m very worried about my grandparents contracting the virus,” Lee Min-kyu, 27, told The Korea Herald on Wednesday. Lee lives in

Culture Sept. 19, 2020