The Financial Services Commission will revise the net capital ratio regulation to create a more favorable environment for Korean investment firms' overseas lending business, the financial regulator said Monday. At a seminar held at the Korea Exchange Monday, many securities firms here -- including Mirae Asset Securities -- raised the issue on how the current regulation makes it difficult to conduct their business outside of Korea. Currently, all investment firms are obligated to maintain a

Industry April 17, 2023

Paycoin, the cryptocurrency issued by PayProtocol, was delisted from three major virtual asset trading platforms in South Korea after the issuer's petition for a preliminary injunction against the removal was rejected by a Seoul court on Friday. PayProtocol, a subsidiary of payment service company Danal, filed the petition on April 8, after the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA) -- consisting of five major crypto exchanges-- announced on March 31 that it would stop trading paycoin on Bi

Industry April 16, 2023

Lee Bok-hyun, chief of the Financial Supervisory Service, on Thursday renewed his commitment to establishing a financial ecosystem that meets global standards. "The supervisory authorities have already decided to repeal the registration requirement for foreign investors and also are revamping the system to meet the demands of overseas financial institutions and investors, including establishing a dedicated system for screening foreign funds,” Lee said during the FSS Speaks conference

Industry April 13, 2023

South Korea's labor market bounced back strongly in March after lackluster growth over the past 10 months as in-person activities have become more widespread. The total number of employed people came to 28.22 million in March, increasing by 469,000 on-year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea on Wednesday. After reaching a peak in June last year -- seeing an on-year increase of 841,000 employed people, the number had been weakening before rebounding last month. "Althou

Industry April 12, 2023

The CEO of the state-run trade promotion agency KOTRA on Tuesday vowed the agency would try its best to reach South Korea’s export target of $685 billion this year. “We will strive to provide support to Korean firms, even if it results in just one additional dollar of exports," Yu Jeoung-yeol said during a press conference held in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Tuesday. Yu’s announcement came after the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said last week that it held a meeting in

Industry April 11, 2023

Following the initial buzz surrounding Apple Pay's launch in Korea, users have began to discuss the service's limitations. "Why bother launching a service that customers can't use? I only find it (Apple Pay) useful for paying at convenience stores," said a comment on Asamo, a Naver blog for Apple enthusiasts. On the blog, another commenter even derisively dubbed Apple Pay "convenience store pay." Korea was never expected to be an easy market for Apple Pay, part

Industry April 11, 2023

South Korea posted a current account deficit for the second consecutive month in February, central bank data showed Friday, as the country's raw material imports grew while outbound shipments continued to slump. The current account balance in February saw a deficit of $520 million, after logging the biggest-ever deficit of $4.21 trillion in January. When looking into the data in more detail, the trade balance for goods posted a deficit of $1.3 billion, marking a $5.65 billion decrease com

Industry April 7, 2023

KB Financial Group has announced on Thursday that it will host a debate competition for university students called the 2023 KB Solveathon in July. The term "solveathon" is a combination of the English words "solve" and "marathon," according to KB Financial Group. Similar to a marathon that requires runners to complete a 42-kilometer route, the debate competition requires participants to engage in presentations and debates for around 42 hours to discover the best sol

Industry April 6, 2023

SK On Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won said Wednesday that he expects to see “tangible results” in the company’s still-nascent electric vehicle battery business from as early as next year, calling the company “the fastest-growing company in the fastest-growing industry.” He was speaking during a town hall meeting held at the company’s headquarters in Seoul, with some 400 executives and employees in attendance. “Typically, a manufacturing company suff

Industry April 6, 2023

Global solutions platform Wave, launched by South Korea's largest lobby group, will play the role of bridging entities around the world to share ideas on resolving major challenges faced by the international community. Wave was launched by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on March 17 and was created as part of the strategies for the country's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan. The online site enables visitors to find solutions to pending global issues such as the envir

Industry April 5, 2023

To prevent money laundering crimes that take place overseas, the Korean financial watchdog highlighted the critical importance of implementing additional measures during a symposium hosted by the US Department of State in the Nuri Ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul on Wednesday. “As overseas transactions of domestic financial institutions are expanding, more sophisticated and diversified methods of money laundering are also emerging,” Financial Supervisory Service Deputy

Industry April 5, 2023

The trend of Korean households being less willing to take out loans due to burdensome high lending rates continued in March, according to industry sources. In March, the remaining balance of household loans at the five major banks -- KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup -- decreased by 4.68 trillion won ($3.55 million) compared to the previous month, to 680.7 trillion won. This downward trend has been persistent for 15 consecutive months since January last year. The reduction in the

Industry April 4, 2023

The number of unused credit cards in Korea exceeded 15.55 million as of the fourth quarter of last year, according to data from the Credit Finance Association released on Monday. The association regards a credit card not in use for more than a year as a dormant card. Dormant credit cards made up 17.98 percent of the total number of issued credit cards. Compared to the third quarter of 2022, the number of unused credit cards increased by 913,000 from 14.64 million. Dormant credit cards made up 17

Industry April 3, 2023

A local crypto exchange platform alliance on Friday decided to remove Paycoin tokens issued by PayProtocol, a subsidiary of payment service company Danal, on April 14. The Digital Asset Exchange Alliance consists of five crypto exchanges, and PayProtocol's Paycoin is currently listed on three of them -- Bithumb, Upbit and Coinone. Until recently, Paycoin had been expanding its business in the local market by enabling purchases with its token at over 150,000 merchants. Paycoin’s mech

Industry April 2, 2023

South Korea's largest securities firm Mirae Asset Securities and telecommunications giant SK Telecom on Thursday formed a consortium called Next Finance Initiative to become a leader of the new emerging security token industry. "We expect to establish a firm position as a global platform that leads the security token industry by combining Mirae Asset Securities' financial expertise with SK Telecom's ICT capabilities and service operation experience,” said Ahn In-seong

Industry March 30, 2023