Korea’s financial indices including equity prices and foreign exchange rates gained Friday as U.S. monetary policymakers overnight hinted at a longer-than-expected stimulus package.The benchmark KOSPI, which stayed below the 2,000 mark for five consecutive trading sessions, closed at 2,005.64, up 38.08 points from a session earlier. The secondary KOSDAQ also rose by 0.99 points to close at 512.74.The U.S. dollar fell 4.5 won to close at 1,063.4 won, heralding another round of the Korean currency

Nov. 15, 2013

Six credit card businesses in the consumer goods-distribution industry will be scrapped as financial regulators move to crack down on the reckless issuance of quasi-cards among department stores and other big retailers.According to the Financial Supervisory Service, they are Grand Department Store, JU Department Store, Daehyun, Shinwon, Chonan Arario and Buan Paradise Hotel.Officials said the cards issued by the large retailers engaged in irregular offerings of benefits to cardholders or reckles

Nov. 15, 2013

Laotian President Choummaly Sayasone will visit South Korea next week for a summit with President Park Geun-hye about ways to expand economic, political and cultural cooperation and exchanges, Seoul’s presidential office said Thursday.The Nov. 21-23 trip will mark the first-ever visit to South Korea by a Laotian president since the two countries reopened diplomatic relations in 1995. Their ties were first forged in 1974, but were cut off a year later after the Southeast Asian nation was communiz

North Korea Nov. 14, 2013

Financial authorities plan to order Visa and MasterCard to slash some of their service charges, officials said on Wednesday.The two giant companies have allegedly made dubious contracts with Korean credit card issuers, which could put an excessive burden of membership and settlement service fees onto cardholders, according to officials at the Financial Supervisory Service.“Many local consumers, who only use their cards in the domestic market, currently have to pay Visa and MasterCard the service

Nov. 13, 2013

JTI said Wednesday that it would introduce Ploom, a premium tobacco vaporizer, in the local market on Nov. 18. The product is a vaporizer that delivers real tobacco vapor from a sophisticated and easy-to-use device.Ploom is in a separate category from both e-cigarettes and ordinary cigarettes.A discreet vapor is created through the heating of tobacco, unlike e-cigarettes which create vapor by heating a nicotine-containing liquid.Ploom capsules will be available in six variants: Mevius, Camel, Co

Industry Nov. 13, 2013

Customs authorities have launched an investigation into three casino operators in Seoul and Busan for allegedly engaging in illegal foreign currency trading.The three firms are Paradise Casino Walkerhill, Paradise Casino Busan and the Busan unit of Grand Korea Leisure, according to the Korea Customs Service.Paradise Casino Busan was found to have performed irregular foreign exchange trading worth about 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 billion), followed by Paradise Casino Walkerhill with 500 billion won a

Nov. 13, 2013

Regulatory inspectors have launched a full-fledged investigation into the nation’s four biggest financial groups over allegations of business irregularities.KB Financial, Hana Financial, Shinhan Financial and Woori Financial have been placed under a “simultaneous and extraordinary” probe, officials at the Financial Supervisory Service revealed Tuesday.Main targets of the regulators include former Hana Financial Group chairman Kim Seung-yu and former KB Financial Group chairman Euh Yoon-dae, both

Nov. 12, 2013

South Korean banks reported worsening profitability overseas this year, having previously advanced into foreign countries in reflection of the saturated domestic market.The Financial Supervisory Service said Tuesday that 148 operations of Korean banks in 33 countries posted a return on assets, a key index for earnings ratio, of 0.83 percent during the first half of the year.The figure is lower than the 0.96 percent of 2012 (1.13 percent in the first half of 2012) and 1.19 percent in 2011, report

Nov. 12, 2013

U.S. and British financial firms seem to be applying different strategies in Korea in the field of stock investment and the operation of brokerage branches.Investors from the United States and Britain account for a large proportion of foreign investors on the local bourse. Last month, those firms collectively net purchased Korean stocks worth more than 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) of the total 5.3 trillion won shares held by foreign investors.However, a growing number of U.S. and U.K.-based fin

Nov. 11, 2013

South Korea, once aid dependent, has announced a plan to boost funding for global financial aid institutions to help secure its international status as an aid donor.The Finance Ministry, in a recent report to the National Assembly, unveiled its intention to allocate 8.8 trillion won ($8 billion) next year to organizations that specialize in giving aid to countries with financial difficulties.The organizations include the two major Washington-based entities ― the International Monetary Fund and t

Nov. 10, 2013

Seven out of 10 foreigners working in Korea were paid less than 2 million won ($1,800) a month this year, Statistics Korea revealed Thursday.According to the state-funded agency, about 525,000 foreign workers were paid less than 2 million won in 2013. They took up 71.4 percent of the total 735,000 salaried non-Korean employees.Of them, the monthly wage for 42,000 workers was below 1 million won, accounting for more than 5 percent of all foreign workers. About 159,000 non-Koreans were paid betwee

Nov. 7, 2013

Korea’s commercial banks saw their profitability sharply worsen this year due mainly to a retreat in their earnings on interest, data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed Monday.Regulatory officials at the FSS revealed that the two major profitability indices ― return on asset and return on equity ― for the first-tier banking industry this year have dropped to their lowest levels since 2003.For the first nine months of this year, the banking sector posted 0.32 percent in collective ROA,

Nov. 4, 2013

The International Monetary Fund has taken a wait-and-see position over some global investors’ view that Korea’s financial market, including the two major bourses, has become safe to invest in.In its assessment on the Korean economy released on Friday, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said the country “has emerged as a safe haven of sorts in the summer’s market turmoil.”The IMF acknowledged that low inflation and ample foreign exchange reserves have strengthened Korea’s attractiveness to r

Nov. 1, 2013

South Korea’s exports surged to a new monthly high last month on growing shipments to the United States and Europe, posting a trade surplus for the 21st consecutive month, the government said Friday.The country’s total outbound shipments came to $50.5 billion last month, up 7.3 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.The previous monthly record was at $48.95 billion posted in July 2011. It also marks the first time the country’s monthly expo

Nov. 1, 2013