The issue of ethics and codes of conduct in the financial industry has returned to the spotlight in the wake of the cash-strapped Tong Yang Group’s woes, two years after the secondary savings bank scandal yielded a huge number of victimized depositors.Over the past year, Tong Yang Securities allegedly actively attracted retail investors for corporate bonds and commercial paper that were issued by some of its nonfinancial Tong Yang affiliates.Market insiders and the political sector are raising t

Oct. 2, 2013

The Fair Trade Commission said Tuesday that POSCO was found to have rigged its performance on “fair trade” deals with subcontractors.The steelmaker was found to have submitted a fabricated report on the deals to the FTC in an alleged to bid to attain a higher score in the assessment on the “shared growth with suppliers” by the Commission of Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies.The antitrust regulator also said POSCO’s PR contents on the fair trade deals posted on its website were insincer

Industry Oct. 2, 2013

Three debt-ridden units of Tong Yang Group filed for court receivership Monday, as part of the conglomerate’s desperate moves to avoid defaulting on corporate bonds and commercial paper totaling more than 100 billion won ($90.9 million) that matured on the day.The court is to manage assets of Tong Yang Inc. ― the group’s de facto holding firm ― Tong Yang Leisure and Tong Yang International and later could order the group owner to sell some corporate or private assets for management normalization

Sept. 30, 2013

The South Korean stock market is expected to gather ground this week as foreign investors are anticipated to continue their buying rally, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 0.4 percent on Friday from a week earlier, closing at 2011.80.Earlier last week, Seoul shares gathered ground as the Federal Reserve decided to keep its current quantitative easing moves in place during the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held a week earlier.The growth, however, was l

Sept. 29, 2013

Tong Yang Group chairman Hyun Jae-hyun has come under growing pressure to give up his personal properties as an emergency move to prevent the conglomerate from falling into default, according to some market insiders Sunday.The observers highlighted Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Choi Soo-hyun’s recent remarks that Tong Yang Group owners are required to take direct responsibility by conducting concrete measures.They also cite the lukewarm stance of the group’s creditors including the state-co

Sept. 29, 2013

The debt owed by major public agencies in South Korea is expected to grow sharply in the years to come, data showed Friday, presenting a daunting task for the public sector to streamline their business in order to tackle the growing debt problem.According to the data by the finance ministry, the combined debt owed by 41 public agencies, including state-run enterprises, will reach 573 trillion won ($531.8 billion) in 2017, up from 520 trillion won projected for this year. These public agencies’ a

Sept. 29, 2013

The South Korean government is expected to introduce the so-called pay-as-you-go system to help ensure its fiscal soundness while working to significantly boost its tax revenues, officials said Sunday.The paygo is a system widely practiced in the United States and other advanced countries where any increase in direct spending prompted by a new law or revision must be offset by other spending decreases or revenue increases, meaning any new law that requires government spending must find its own r

Sept. 29, 2013

Controversy is expected to flare up as some state-run banks are set to participate in the upcoming bidding for the government-led sale of Woori Financial Group units.The state-funded Industrial Bank of Korea on Monday tendered the letter of intent to acquire Kyongnam Bank to financial authorities, one of the two provincial lenders of the public funds-injected Woori Financial.IBK will vie for Kyongnam Bank with other potential bidders including Busan-based BS Financial Group, Daegu-based DGB Fina

Sept. 23, 2013

Korea’s major accounting firms are seeking to reinforce their overseas businesses, as the nation’s accounting transparency and auditing skills have approached international standards after years of efforts by financial regulators and businesses.Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers has initiated the movement to make inroads into overseas markets while its competitors such as Deloitte Anjin, Samjong KPMG and Ernst & Young Korea are poised to follow suit.Samil, the Korean member firm of London-based PwC, s

Sept. 22, 2013

South Korea is one of eight emerging economies that are least likely to be jolted by an external shock, on the back of strong fundamentals, foreign investment banks said Tuesday.Nomura put Asia’s fourth-largest economy at the eighth place on the list of 26 countries it picked whose financial soundness is deemed strong enough to stay unscathed from external jolts.In the report compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance, the Japanese investment banking giant drew such an analysis based

Sept. 17, 2013