Bank and union agree on pay raise, creation of task force on other issuesStandard Chartered Bank Korea has reached a compromise with its union on a wage hike, though there are still unsettled aspects to their talks.The two sides agreed to pay raises of 2 percent and 4.1 percent for 2010 and 2011 salaries, respectively, late Tuesday.Their talks on the salary hike have continued over the past two years amid the possibility of a general strike of unionized workers.They also tentatively compromised

Feb. 29, 2012

Controversial law may pass National Assembly ahead of April electionsCredit card firms are considering filing a petition with the Constitutional Court to ban lawmakers from providing the government with the right to lower the services fees on card payments.A revision of the Credit Finance Business Act allows the government to set the rates of credit card service fees charged on retailers.Ahead of the April 11 general elections, the bill has been pushed by a dominant number of ruling and oppositi

Feb. 28, 2012

South Korean stocks dropped 1.42 percent Monday on concerns that rising oil prices may hurt the South Korean economy and corporate earnings, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 28.73 points to end at 1,991.16. Trading volume was moderate at 629 million shares worth 5.48 trillion won ($4.85 billion) with decliners leading gainers 570 to 275.“Rising oil prices could be a big burden to the local economy and hurt corpora

Feb. 27, 2012

Korea Exchange Bank dismissed all nine of its executives Monday, under the business policy of its new CEO Yun Yong-ro to revamp management structure.His move comes a month after financial regulators endorsed Hana Financial Group’s takeover of KEB from Lone Star Funds.Yun, the first KEB CEO under the wing of Hana Financial, notified the nine executives, including four deputy CEOs, that their terms would not be extended.The executives were at their posts during Lone Star’s management of the bank f

Feb. 27, 2012

The labor dispute in Standard Chartered Bank Korea has entered a critical phase again as its management recently failed to reach a compromise with the union.The union of Standard Chartered has threatened to stage a general strike amid the standstill in their negotiations with the management.Though the unionized workers, who went on a walkout between June and August, returned to work, the dispute has not been resolved, according to bank spokespeople.“They are working at branches. But their protes

Feb. 26, 2012

Chairman could oversee Hana’s emergence as Korea’s No. 1 financial groupHana Financial Group plans to select the successor to incumbent chairman Kim Seung-yu, whose term expires in late March, in the coming days.The new chairman will be the second figure to head Hana Financial since Kim took on the top post in 2005.Further, Kim’s successor will take on the role of integrating different corporate culture of Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank, which was acquired by the group this month, over the ne

Feb. 26, 2012

By Kim Yon-seKB Financial Group has been expanding its social contribution activities such as educational programs for students and donations to the needy.In particular, the group’s social foundation is diversifying educational and scholarship programs.Last year, the group set up the KB Financial Public Foundation, specialized in education and research, to support economic and financial research projects.The foundation controls 20 billion won ($17.5 million) of funds donated by KB and its subsid

Feb. 23, 2012

The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, faced another problem with its cyber transaction systems early Thursday.A certain proportion of Nonghyup customers could not access its internet banking system for about five hours until 7 a.m. on the day.As this marked the fifth glitch in online transactions in less than one year for Nonghyup, its cyber security system has been regarded as seriously vulnerable to hackers.In April 2011, it suffered a critical breakdown of the network

Feb. 23, 2012

HSBC has predicted that Korea would overtake the U.K. in trade ranking within 15 years by seeing a cumulative growth of 142 percent in trade volume by 2026.The projection for Korea by HSBC Global Connections far surpasses the figure for the world’s trade volume. It forecasts that the world’s trade will expand 86 percent by 2026.“Countries that will see increases in their share of world trade to 2026 include South Korea, which will replace the U.K. as the sixth-largest trading nation due to trade

Feb. 22, 2012

KB Financial Group chairman Euh Yoon-dae expressed his willingness to collaborate with Samsung Life Insurance to take over ING Life’s Asia-Pacific operations.“ING Life is operating seven or eight units in the Asia-Pacific region. We have no capability to buy all of them,” he told reporters on Wednesday.If ING Life sells off only the ING Korea unit, KB Financial could participate in the coming bidding as a single bidder, he said.But if the company chooses to sell its entire Asia-Pacific operation

Feb. 22, 2012

Nation’s No. 5 lender holds largest sales networksThe National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, will establish a financial group early next month, becoming the nation’s No. 5 lender in the financial industry.The new financial group’s debut reflects the government’s policy to separately operate the credit or financial sector and the economy or farm products marketing sector.The dividing of the business sector will mark the first time in 51 years since Agriculture Bank merged with

Feb. 21, 2012