South Korea’s finance minister once again downplayed the possibility of delaying taxation on cryptocurrency earnings, while emphasizing that his ministry is gearing up to carry out its plan as scheduled. Hong Nam-ki, the minister of Finance and Economy, made such remarks during an Assembly hearing on Wednesday when asked about the preparedness of taxation infrastructure on crypto assets. Hong’s remarks came one day after a lawmaker revealed a survey result in which three crypto e

Economy Oct. 20, 2021

Kakao Bank CEO Yoon Ho-young and Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technology, discussed further cooperation between the two companies and ways to improve competitiveness in the midst of the digital transformation, officials in Seoul said Monday. Dell provides server, network and data storage services to Korea’s largest internet-only bank. The online meeting between the two was held last month to seek cooperation in cloud and big data solutions, Kakao said, without elaborating on w

Market Oct. 18, 2021

South Korea’s market bellwether Samsung Electronics increased 1 percent to 70,100 won ($59.28) on Friday, after remaining below the sensitive threshold for four consecutive days. The benchmark Kospi climbed 0.88 percent to 3,015.16 points in the same day. Samsung Electronics, Korea’s largest company by market cap, has the biggest group of retail investors -- some 4.54 million -- as of the end of June. Samsung’s stock prices soared to as high as 91,000 won on Jan. 11 but li

Market Oct. 15, 2021

Nonghyup Financial Group Chairman Son Byung-hwan on Friday highlighted the group’s efforts to incorporate the metaverse into its businesses. “Many experts predict that the era of the metaverse is what will come next after this smartphone era,” Son said, urging the company’s executives to “study the possibility of commercialization with interest in the metaverse.” In accordance with Son’s vision, the group said it plans to set up a metaverse task force

Market Oct. 15, 2021

South Korea’s market bellwether Samsung Electronics increased 1.3 percent to 70,300 won ($59.46) during Friday morning trade, ending a price slide that lasted four consecutive days. The benchmark Kospi climbed 0.89 percent to 3,015.14 points. Samsung Electronics, the largest company in the nation by market cap, has the biggest group of retail investors, who amassed 2.78 trillion won worth of its shares in the 10 trading days ending Wednesday. Friday’s increase followed an indust

Market Oct. 15, 2021

Toss Bank, South Korea’s third internet-only bank, said on Thursday that it will suspend new loans until the end of this year, Toss Bank, South Korea’s third internet-only bank, said on Thursday that it will suspend new loans through the end of this year, after financial authorities declined to increase the new bank’s lending limit. The banking arm of fintech giant Viva Republica said its loan limit of 500 billion won ($422 million) had been exhaus

Economy Oct. 14, 2021

South Korea’s Economy and Financial Minister Hong Nam-ki has said that the government will keep expansionary policies next year as the country eyes an economy recovery and return to “normal life” out of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re gradually preparing to go back to normalcy by increasing the vaccination rate and the country’s central bank is gradually adjusting its accommodative monetary policy,” Hong, who also doubles Deputy Prime Minister, told Kr

Economy Oct. 13, 2021

Four metaverse-themed exchange-traded funds went listed for the first time on the country’s stock markets on Wednesday, betting on growing interest in the new IT platform. The four ETFs are KB Asset Management’s KBSTAR iSelect Metaverse, NH Amundi Asset Management’s Hanaro Fn K-Metaverse MZ, Mirae Asset Global Investment’s Tiger Fn Metaverse, and Samsung Asset Management’s KODEX K-Metaverse Active. Samsung Asset’s ETF product is an actively managed fund,

Market Oct. 13, 2021

Bitcoin jumped 30 percent this month to reach 70 million won ($58,378), the first time it breached that level in five months, as US financial regulators said they won’t follow China in banning cryptocurrency transactions. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap rose almost 30 percent during October to 70.99 million won as of Tuesday morning, data from crypto exchange Upbit showed. With the rally this month, bitcoin’s market capitalization reached 1 trillion won, surpassing that of

Market Oct. 12, 2021

South Korea’s lawmakers are trying to push back controversial taxation on income from investing in cryptocurrencies, which is to be implemented from Jan. 1, 2022. The opposition People Power Party was drafting a proposal that eases capital gain taxes on cryptocurrencies and is expected to submit the bill as early as Tuesday. The People Power Party’s bill suggests a one-year delay for crypto gain taxation to 2023 along with a more generous tax redemption than currently planned. Th

Market Oct. 11, 2021

A majority of nations struck a groundbreaking deal to enforce a corporate tax rate of 15 percent and share taxes imposed on the profits of multinational companies to where they actually generate profits, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said Saturday. Some 136 countries and jurisdictions out of 140 involved reached yearslong deals led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to reform tax schemes that will help countries collect an extra $100 billion in corporate taxes

Economy Oct. 10, 2021

Riiid, a South Korean artificial intelligence-based education tech company, has acquired Langoo, the Japanese distributor of its service, in an effort to expand its business in the world’s third-largest economy, the company said Saturday. The acquisition is coming less than five months after it secured $175 million in series D funding solely raised from Japan’s Softbank’s Vision Fund 2, and is part of the company’s broader strategy to expand through mergers and acquis

Market Oct. 10, 2021

Upbit, South Korea’s first cryptocurrency exchange to receive a green light from regulators, is gearing up to verify its massive number of users to fulfill the next important duty under the anti-money laundry act. Industry watchers believe Upbit’s user verification could take as long as three months due to its massive user base of 8.3 million and a public ID verification system operated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The ministry’s identity verification system

Market Sept. 29, 2021

A plan to adopt a critical ESG disclosure system by 2023 is lagging far behind other countries and should be implemented as soon as possible to foster environmental, social and governance investment, Ryu Young-jae, CEO of a leading ESG advisory firm said Tuesday. European countries adopted a sustainable finance disclosure system in 2018 and Japan in 2021. The US House of Representatives passed the ESG Disclosure and Simplification Act in June, according to Ryu. Under such a disclosure syste

Economy Sept. 29, 2021

Personal and corporate bankruptcies in South Korea increased by more than 10 percent last year, data showed Monday, reflecting the economic impact of COVID-19 on both businesses and households. According to the report released by the National Court Administration, the number of personal bankruptcies filed in 2020 rose by 10.4 percent from the previous year, from 45,654 cases to 50,379 cases. Last year’s tally was the biggest figure since 2015. After hitting a record high of 150,439 c

Economy Sept. 27, 2021