Chiefs of the nation’s loss-generating public agencies raked in performance-based benefits worth about 3 billion won ($2.7 million) in total last year.According to financial info provider Alio, CEOs of 104 state-funded agencies that failed to log a net profit in 2012 received a combined 2.98 billion won in bonuses.The state-run companies that posted net losses or reaped zero net profit included Korea Finance Corp., Korea Deposit Insurance Corp., Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Electric Power

May 8, 2013

South Korea and the United States plan to sign a pact on close collaboration in the energy sector this week, officials at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday.On the sidelines of President Park Geun-hye’s summit diplomacy in the United States, Korea’s Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick will make a joint declaration on mutual aid on energy development with his counterpart later this week, according to the ministry officials.While the new secretary nominee for U.

Industry May 7, 2013

Creditors of STX Group tentatively reached a consensus that they will give their “qualified” consent to bailing out ailing units of the shipbuilding giant, the state-run Korea Development Bank said Monday.The main creditor KDB and others held a meeting to discuss whether to accept the proposal from the business group over joint management of several units by creditor banks.Their qualified consent means that the creditors are seeking to inject emergency relief funds into the debt-saddled STX Grou

May 6, 2013

Financial companies will offer bailout funds worth 700 billion won ($636 million) to the 123 financially troubled South Korean companies operating in the suspended Gaeseong industrial complex in North Korea, financial regulators said Friday.Their emergency relief loans, aimed at preventing the firms from experiencing a liquidity crisis, were fostered after the North suspended operations of the complex by pulling out most of its 53,000 workers about a month ago in protest against a joint military

May 3, 2013

STX Group has applied for joint management of its four financially distressed subsidiaries by creditor banks, the state-run Korea Development Bank said Friday.The main creditor KDB also said STX Group is considering selling two units of STX Europe ― STX France and STX Finland ― as part of efforts to improve the group’s overall financial soundness.The shipbuilding conglomerate’s application for creditors’ comanagement is seen as a desperate effort to overcome the financial crisis facing STX Heavy

May 3, 2013

Two major foreign banks operating in Korea ranked low in consumer protection, being given the lowest grade of “class 5” by the Financial Supervisory Service.In the yearly assessment from the FSS on financial firms’ consumer protection, Citibank Korea and Standard Chartered Bank Korea ranked at the bottom, along with Nonghyup Bank, out of 15 commercial banks.Their grade of class 5 means that they were “poor” in resolving customers’ complaints throughout the past year, FSS officials said Tuesday.T

April 30, 2013

The Financial Services Commission is considering widening the scope of its accounting oversight targets under the Park Geun-hye administration’s drive to raise tax revenue.The new targets may include law firms, accounting firms, religious groups, donation fund operators, some local units of foreign financial firms and luxury brands operating here, FSC officials said.The cited sectors have not been subject to external audits, while financial statements of a greater portion of businesses have been

April 29, 2013

Korean firms’ annual usage of company credit cards at entertainment establishments including room salons totaled at least 1.4 trillion won ($1.25 billion) on average, the Korea Institute of Public Finance said Sunday.According to the institute’s research report, the nation’s corporate sector paid 1.41 trillion won with their company cards at entertainment spots in 2011.Room salons (or hostess bars) topped the list in company card settlement records of 923.7 billion won, followed by karaoke rooms

April 28, 2013

The Financial Supervisory Service said Sunday that it issued a “warning” against Ergo Daum Direct, an online auto insurance company, for rigging insurance premium-related figures in an alleged bid to attract more policyholders.Ergo Daum Direct, which is now under the wing of the France-based Axa General Insurance, was also levied fines of 50 million won ($44,600) from the financial regulator.In 2012, the insurer sought to increase its market share by manipulating the loss ratio ― or the ratio of

April 28, 2013

Regulators are poised to impose a ban later this year on joint guarantees on loans extended by secondary financial firms, following the earlier abolishment of the lending practice among commercial banks.Over the past several decades, lenders have demanded that some individuals or smaller businesses submit third-party debt guarantees when applying for loans. Such guarantees have frequently triggered a chain reaction of bankruptcy for guarantors, such as families, relatives and friends, when borro

April 25, 2013

The Fair Trade Commission vowed to take stern disciplinary measures against conglomerates for irregular business practices during its report to President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday.The antitrust regulator, which has already pledged to crack down on unfair intragroup trading among conglomerate-based affiliates, said it would also introduce the system of class action lawsuits by pushing for a Competition Law revision in June.“Enterprises including financial firms engaging in cartel practices will

April 24, 2013

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday dismissed some local market analysts’ view that the Group of 20 countries recently reached a consensus not to tackle the Japanese yen’s weak position.“The G20 communique (drawn up by finance ministers in Washington, D.C., over the weekend) does not involve any common consent that the members would tolerate the cheap yen,” Finance Ministry’s international finance policy director Choi Hee-nam told a news briefing.Concerning arguments that the G20 members did not cri

April 23, 2013