South Korea is facing increasing pressure to reduce or recycle its own plastic waste, particularly since China’s plastic import ban that took effect in January this year.While some countries like the United Kingdom have embarked on state-led measures in a joint effort with local business sectors to ditch plastic, similar measures in Korea face criticism for their lack of binding force and sustainability.In a speech to mark Environment Day on June 5, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon echoed a need to in

Industry June 8, 2018

A tectonic shift is unraveling in and around the Korean Peninsula, especially in the wake of rapprochement mood and signs of denuclearization in North Korea, as well as trade war threats in East Asia. But to businessmen here, the looming transformation in the world‘s most secluded state could translate into a change in environment to which they would be forced to adapt. Experts and veterans in economic fields in South Korea discussed ways to address the transformation, to some 200-strong a

Economy June 7, 2018

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 16th installment. - Ed.To retail shop owners occupied with day-to-day operations, managing card payments is an integral part of doing business, but at the same time, a time-consuming hassle.Vendors in South Korea, where there are a total of eight card companies in business, also face the same situation, particularly as cards have become the main means of payment.In 2017,

Market June 5, 2018

Samsung SDS on Monday launched a financial platform powered by blockchain and artificial intelligence, designed to help the local banking industry to cut cost, minimize security threats and streamline financial procedures, the firm said.Dubbed “Nexfinance,” the new platform features user applications that would automate a customer’s process of tracking and integrating financial records from different financial companies, getting product recommendations, claiming insurance and m

Market June 4, 2018

South Korea’s financial markets will shut down on June 13 for a designated holiday for local election, according to the Korea Exchange Monday.  Markets trading equities, derivatives and commodities here will be closed throughout the day, based on the internal regulations by the KRX. Also, settlement or liquidation of stocks, derivatives and interest rate swaps in Korean won and US dollar will not be conducted during the day.The KRX operates markets for stocks, exchange-traded funds or

Market June 4, 2018

This is the 56th in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. -- Ed. Only two decades ago, today’s genome sequencing technology sounded like magic. Driven by growing interest in the mysteries of the human body and passion for finding a cure, the market for genome sequencing service market has doubled in eight years. The price of the service also plummeted significantly in the 15 years leading to 2016, giving researchers easier access cost-wise to geno

Industry June 3, 2018

The banking industry here has been stirred up following the arrest warrant sought by the prosecution against KEB Hana Bank Chief Executive Officer Ham Young-joo last Wednesday, in the latest development of the recruitment scandal. Ham will face a hearing on the arrest warrant on Friday.If the court decides to issue the warrant, Ham will become the first incumbent head of a South Korean commercial bank to be under arrest on charges of hiring irregularities.  The prosecution views a banking f

Market May 31, 2018

Two financial units under the Samsung conglomerate -- Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance -- unveiled plans Wednesday to sell off their Samsung Electronics shares by Thursday.Samsung Life Insurance, holding 8.23 percent of Samsung Electronics as of Wednesday, will sell off some 23 million shares worth 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion), so that its ownership ratio will decrease to 7.92 percent, its regulatory filing showed.Also, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance will se

Market May 30, 2018

A total of 62,000 employees and executives of South Korean steelmaker Posco working in 53 nations participated in an annual weeklong volunteer event for each of their working communities, the firm said Wednesday.The volunteer work included a project for coral reef rehabilitation in Pattaya, a resort city on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, where some 100 employees at Posco-SouthAsia and Posco-Thainox took part in placing some 300 young coral reefs to restore the coast’s ecosystem, accordi

Industry May 30, 2018

High-net-worth-individuals who subscribe to private banking products were more inclined to invest in foreign countries than domestic, showed a survey by Korea’s brokerage house Samsung Securities. The survey was based on responses by 100 private bankers in Samsung Securities. The respondents‘ answers reflected thoughts of HNWIs -- who hold over 100 million won ($92,700) in assets individually -- according to the company. Seventy-eight of the respondents said their HNWIs picked foreig

Market May 29, 2018

South Korean financial technology startup QARASoft on Tuesday launched a beta version of an artificial intelligence-powered application to forecast financial market movements. Dubbed “Kosho,” the robo adviser app is expected to offer a prediction for the following week, based on over 400 million financial market indicators for the last 30 years, accumulated and analyzed by QARASoft’s deep learning engine, Market Dreamer. Market Dreamer offers quantitative analyses for stock mar

Market May 29, 2018

The Pohang chapter of Hyundai Steel’s labor union said Tuesday it had carried out a social responsibility program for 19 children from a local child welfare center.  Members of Hyundai Steel labor union’s Pohang chapter and children from a welfare center in a northern part of Pohang pose during a program held in Pohang. (Hyundai Steel)On May 23, the chapter’s 13 union members reached out to a child welfare center in a northern remote part of Pohang, a port city in North Gyeongsang Province. Thro

Industry May 29, 2018

South Korea’s financial regulator unveiled Monday plans to create an electronic system to track real-time foreign stock transactions and changes in outstanding stocks, in order to ramp up oversight of securities trade here amid growing public distrust in the current system and hostility against short selling. Through a newly created monitoring system, the Korea Securities Depository would cross-check the volume of outstanding stocks reported by the custodian bank of each foreign investor,

Market May 28, 2018

Amid widening market volatility on looming rate hikes at home and abroad, investors have been taking to money market accounts to park their cash. One of such accounts by Standard Chartered Bank Korea, the local unit of the London-based banking group, offer investors not only a place to park cash, but also interest rate up to 1.7 percent a year before tax. South Korea’s current base rate is 1.5 percent.Subscribers to the bank’s “SC My Zoom Account” are offered a maximum of

Market May 28, 2018

Four years have passed since Alex Tapscott, then a Canadian investment banker, published a seminal white paper that pictures bitcoin blockchain’s potential financial use free of intermediaries.The 32-page paper titled “A Bitcoin Governance Network” -- generated upon the request of his father, the author of “Wikinomics” Don Tapscott -- laid the foundation for the 368-page “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and

Market May 25, 2018