A Seoul court issued an arrest warrant for Kakao Chief Investment Officer Bae Jae-hyun on Thursday on charges of market manipulation related to SM Entertainment's stock price. The development has raised uncertainty about joint projects initiated by Kakao and SM Entertainment. "The arrest warrant was issued due to concerns about Bae destroying evidence or fleeing," the court said. The court dismissed arrest warrants for Kakao's head of investment strategy, surnamed Kang, and

Industry Oct. 19, 2023

Park Jong-bok, the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Korea, has been nominated as the sole final candidate for the bank's top position again, according to the lender on Monday. The bank's executive candidate recommendation committee selected Park as the final candidate for the next CEO during a meeting held last Friday. If appointed, he will be serving his fourth term, which will last for a year starting Jan. 8, 2024, as the CEO of SC Bank Korea. "Since assuming the top position in 2

Industry Oct. 17, 2023

The Financial Services Commission, Korea's top financial regulator, unveiled plans on Monday to increase the pet insurance enrollment rate, currently at approximately just 1 percent in a country with some 8 million pets. "The pet insurance enrollment rate in the US is approximately 2 percent, while in Japan, it exceeds 12 percent. Our goal is to position ourselves between these two countries,” Shin Sang-hoon, head of the insurance department at the FSC, emphasized during a press

Industry Oct. 16, 2023

More than 90 percent of all fines for illegal short selling of stocks have been issued to foreign financial firms, government data showed, amid calls from Korean retail investors for stricter regulation. According to Financial Services Commission data submitted to Rep. Yun Ju-kyung of the ruling People Power Party, the regulator dealt with 45 cases of illegal short selling in the first eight months of the year, with total fines exceeding 10.7 billion won ($7.9 million). Of the 45 cases, 23 invol

Industry Oct. 15, 2023

South Korea's economy is expected to achieve a growth rate of 2.1 percent in 2024, according to the recent report titled "2024 Economic and Financial Market Outlook" by Hana Bank's research institution, the Hana Institute of Finance. “Considering the base effect of the sharp slowdown in 2023, the growth momentum is not strong,” Oh Hyun-hee, a researcher at the Hana Institute of Finance said. The institute forecasts an annual economic growth rate of 1.3 percent f

Industry Oct. 12, 2023

Korean science fiction writer Bae Myung-hoon on Wednesday emphasized the importance of bridging the gap between our familiar neighborhoods and space in order to craft compelling space exploration narratives in a Korean setting. He explained that this is difficult, because creators' cognitive range -- the space that creators are familiar with and can describe well -- is limited usually to their surroundings. Korean content consumers also often struggle to simultaneously envision both space

Industry Oct. 11, 2023

Kakao Bank, the banking arm of Korean mobile giant Kakao, announced Tuesday that it will acquire a 10 percent stake in PT Super Bank Indonesia, aiming to boost its presence in the Southeast Asian market. The acquisition will be Kakao Bank's first investment outside of Korea, and will be done in collaboration with the Singapore-based ride-hailing and food delivery app, Grab. A consortium led by Grab and Singapore-based global telecom company, Singtel, is the largest shareholder of PT Super B

Industry Oct. 10, 2023

Sara, a Czech citizen who has been living in Korea for about six years, tried to open an online bank account three years ago. “But it didn’t work, as it wasn’t open to foreigners. I had a lot of trouble with verifying my identity for various services online,” she said. The difficulty in accessing online services due to issues of identity verification has long been a frustration for foreigners residing in Korea, so the Korean government has recently come up with easier mob

Industry Oct. 6, 2023

More than 1 in 4 foreign recipients of unemployment benefits received more last year in unemployment benefits than from the wages they earned before their employment ended, Ministry of Employment and Labor data showed. According to Labor Ministry data submitted to Rep. Kim Sang-hoon of the ruling People Power Party on Wednesday, of 12,100 foreign recipients of unemployment benefits last year, 3,200 (26.4 percent) received more from the scheme than from their previous wages. Rep. Kim expressed

Industry Oct. 4, 2023

South Korea's household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio increased the most last year from 2017 among 26 nations that provided such data, despite financial authorities taking various measures to curb it. According to the International Monetary Fund's Global Debt Database, the ratio reached 108.1 percent last year, an increase of 16.2 percentage points from 92 percent in 2017. South Korea is the only country among the 26 countries included in the data set where private sector debt &

Industry Oct. 3, 2023

The Korean government on Tuesday said it plans to supply an additional 120,000 public homes by this year to help ease the housing crunch in the sluggish market. The plan came after the government held a meeting earlier in the day attended by Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, Land Minister Won Hee-ryong and Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Joo-hyun. Since the second half of last year, rising construction costs and an increase in real estate project financing borrowing rates have worse

Industry Sept. 26, 2023

KB Financial Group's outgoing chair, Yoon Jong-kyoo, said Monday that he hopes his successor will realize his unattained goal to grow the group as a top-10 financial firm in the world. "I previously said I want to turn the group into the 'Samsung of finance,' but now that I look back, I feel a lot of regret when thinking about how much progress we've made (on global stage)," Yoon said at a press conference held at the group’s headquarters in Seoul. He will ste

Industry Sept. 25, 2023

Lee Seung-min, a third-grade student at Gyeongju Hwarang High School, won the 16th KB Financial Group Women's Amateur Golf Championship on Friday. Lee finished the second round of the tournament at Century 21 Country Club in Gangwon Province with a total of 6-under 138 strokes to take the top spot. The final round of the tournament was delayed by about two hours due to heavy fog and ultimately had to be canceled. The winner was determined by the combined scores of the first two rounds. Lee

Industry Sept. 22, 2023

Mirae Asset Global Investments has been leading the domestic equity ETF market with its innovative growth ETFs since April 2022, according to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. In recent years, ETF products have become increasingly popular in Korea and have attracted significant inflows of funds. As a result, the Korean ETF market attracted more than 100 trillion won ($74.77 billion) in investments, with equity ETFs attracting 50 trillion won. Industry sources say Mirae Asset&

Industry Sept. 22, 2023

European automakers called for a relaxation of regulations on selling electric vehicles in Korea during a press conference for the publication of a white paper by the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Thursday. The ECCK’s passenger vehicles committee chairperson, Kim Hong-joong, said that the recent law amendment requiring automakers to secure the pre-certification of electric vehicle batteries to prevent safety hazards should be aligned with United Nations standards. “We re

Industry Sept. 21, 2023