In a recent media event, Kakao Pay CEO Shin Won-keun unveiled the company’s ambitious goal of becoming a Korean version of Robinhood in its recent push for global expansion in partnership with Siebert Financial, the US brokerage firm. “We are considering making a solution that combines Siebert's stock trading solution with Kakao Pay Securities' mobile trading service,” CEO Shin said. “We believe we can become the next Robinhood with it." Robinhood is the re

Industry May 22, 2023

Naver Pay app installations soared 186 percent to 470,000 in April, a month after it integrated its payment service with Samsung Pay, according to Naver Financial. "We see that the number of app installations for Samsung Pay's interlinked offline payment service has significantly increased,” a Naver Financial official said in a statement Thursday. "The usage of the payment service has expanded to include a wider range of locations, encompassing not only convenience stores

Industry May 19, 2023

Kakao Pay, the online payment unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., will step up its stock trading service and expand global footing by launching a solution jointly with US brokerage firm Siebert Financial, the firm's CEO Shin Won-keun said Monday. “We are considering making a solution that combines Siebert's stock trading solution with Kakao Pay Securities' mobile trading service,” Shin said at the press conference held at Conrad Seoul in Yeouido, Seoul. In A

Industry May 15, 2023

US investment firm Capital Group has increased its stake in Hana Financial Group from the previous 5.08 percent to 5.55 percent, becoming the Korean financial giant’s third-largest shareholder. Following the 5.08 percent stake purchase in February, the US firm announced its additional stake purchase of 0.47 percent last week. With the latest purchase, Capital Group becomes the third-largest shareholder after the National Pension Service with 8.78 percent and BlackRock with 6.19 percent. Ca

Industry May 14, 2023

Samsung Electronics' recent decision not to renew its existing contract with local card companies for its mobile payment service Samsung Pay has sparked speculations that the company might start charging fees for the service. Under the previously signed contract with a local card issuer, Samsung Electronics was not entitled to receive separate commissions for Samsung Pay. Since the initial launch of the Korean tech giant’s digital wallet service in Korea in August 2015, there have bee

Industry May 11, 2023

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo on Tuesday said that the group aims to increase its profit from overseas operations to around 40 percent of the total in the medium to long term at the "Invest K-finance: Singapore IR 2023" event in Singapore. To reach this goal, Ham said the group will continue to use its current strategy of making strategic investments in minority stakes in overseas financial institutions. “This approach provides the advantage of minimizing financial

Industry May 10, 2023

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo said the banking group has been preparing for potential insolvency risks in project financing in the Korean real estate market by increasing its reserve holdings during a global investor relations event held in Singapore on Tuesday. During the "Invest K-Finance: Singapore IR 2023" event, many global investors voiced concern over the rising risks in the real estate project financing market in Korea. The loan exposure of four major Korean fina

Industry May 10, 2023

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo has made it his mission this year to position the financial group as a leader in addressing the issue of a declining birth rate in the country. "The declining birth rate is a social issue that finance firms should be paying attention to. It is one of the primary areas where financial firms should be taking a leading role," Ham said in a statement. This move came after Korea's fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman bear

Industry May 9, 2023

KB Financial Group hosted its "Cocktail Reception" on Thursday at the Sheraton Grand Incheon with key players in the global financial industry. The event showcased the Korean company's businesses and growth strategies while exploring potential opportunities for collaboration. The reception also served to commemorate the 56th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank, which took place in Incheon last week. Seventy KB Financial Group executives, including Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo

Industry May 8, 2023

All four major financial holding companies in Korea have increased their loan loss reserves during the first quarter of this year. Despite this, KB Financial Group, Woori Financial Group, Hana Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group have managed to report an improvement in net profit during this period. KB's loan loss reserves in the January-March period were 668.2 billion won, surging dramatically from 145.8 billion won during the same period last year. Despite the increase in loan los

Industry April 27, 2023

The SDX Foundation chairman warned that innovative changes to our old perception of the climate crisis must occur within the next 10 years, or it will be impossible to prevent catastrophic consequences. “Although our generation only worked hard for our family and society, the outcome has unfortunately led to passing on a deteriorated environment to our children,” said SDX Foundation Chairman Jhun Ha-jin, 65, during a ReWorld Forum in Seoul on Wednesday. “Due to this unfortunate

Industry April 26, 2023

Meritz Financial Group on Tuesday completed the process of incorporating its nonlife insurance and brokerage affiliates into the group, making it the third-largest financial conglomerate in Korea. After the consolidation, the group's market capitalization is expected to extend to over 9 trillion won ($6.73 billion). Only KB Financial Group (19.85 trillion won) and Hana Financial Group (12.31 trillion won) are estimated to have higher market capitalizations. The group's decision to in

Industry April 25, 2023

KB Global Fintech Lab is at the forefront of supporting South Korean startups to have Singapore as a launchpad and make their way into other overseas markets. At the same time, KB, the Korean banking giant, aims to seek new business opportunities in the Southeast Asian country’s sprawling digital finance sector. "Although some in-house teams for digitalization exist in our company, it's difficult to develop and create everything on our own. As a result, we are now supporting st

Industry April 24, 2023

Hyundai Card, the first partner of Apple Pay in South Korea, saw a 75 percent on-month increase in the number of its new card users during the first month since the payment service launched in Korea. The number of new Hyundai Card members has increased by 203,000 following the launch of Apple Pay in Korea on Mar. 21, according to data from the Credit Finance Association of Korea. The number of new members of Hyundai Card in March was the highest among eight local credit card companies -- Lotte,

Industry April 21, 2023

Samsung Life Insurance announced on Thursday that it has acquired a 20 percent stake in Meridiam SAS, a French private equity firm focused on infrastructure investment. With this investment, Samsung Life has become the second-largest shareholder of the French company. "As Meridiam has diverse investment experience and expert executives in the infrastructure sector, we believe that it is an adequate strategic partner for Samsung Life Insurance's global alternative investment expansion,

Industry April 20, 2023