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Kang Seung-woo

Korea Times Business Reporter

Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.

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Companies

No class action against Hyundai Capital likely

By Kang Seung-woo Customers of Hyundai Capital are enraged over the company’s ineptitude in protecting their data from cyber criminals, but bringing a class-action suit against the company looks to be a challenge. Hyundai Capital, an affiliate of automotives giant Hyundai Motor and the largest lender in the country’s secondary financial sector, reported last week that the personal information of more than 420,000 of its customers has been breached by hackers. If any other company were involved, a security blunder of such a size would have lawyers scrambling to lure victims to sign up for collective legal action that could fetch them a massive payday. Things are a little more complicated with Hyundai Capital as many of those who borrowed from the company were in precarious financial situations to begin with. Many customers appear to feel that a class-action suit against the company would result in a backlash they couldn’t afford. Should Hyundai Capital stop lending them money, their next option is to turn to the country’s notorious loan sharks and their crippling interes

Apr 13, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
  • Hyundai Capital case chronology
Companies

Hyundai Capital case chronology

By Kang Seung-woo February to April 2011: Hyundai Capital’s database was hacked via servers in the Philippines and Brazil by people who stole information little by little in order to avoid detection. April 7: Hyundai Capital was blackmailed by an unknown hacker demanding 500 million won ($460,500) in return for not releasing the confidential financial information of some individuals. Later the day, Hyundai reported the case to the police. April 8: Hyundai transferred 100 million won to accounts that hackers had specified to aid police investigations. The police put surveillance on an automatic teller machine (ATM) but failed to capture the culprit April 9: Hyundai Capital CEO Chung Tae-young returned from a business trip to Norway and the police additionally found that the account numbers and passwords of 13,000 prime loan pass users had been stolen. April 10: Hyundai held a press conference and said that its ongoing internal investigation revealed that not just personal data ― names, residential registration numbers, mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses ― but al

Apr 13, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Asia to see big money infusion in May

By Kang Seung-woo Investment capital is likely to flow back into emerging markets from next month, a British expert said Tuesday. “We have a very big investment conference every year for Asia in Hong Kong, where we have about 2,000 investment clients and about 300 corporations across all sectors and all countries in Asia and we carried out a poll on ‘At what point do you see fund flow going back into emerging Asia from the developed (countries)?’ and 75 percent of the room felt that it would happen in two months,” Osama Abbasi, CEO of Credit Suisse Asia Pacific, said in an interview with The Korea Times. “The conference was on March 21, so basically the general view was May 21, meaning you will see money flow into emerging Asia rather than out of emerging Asia.” According to him, there were about $8 billion to $10 billion of fund outflows from emerging Asia into the developed markets of Japan, Europe and the United States in the first six to seven weeks of 2011. However, he remained cautious in predicting how long the trend will last. “It is very hard to have a view

Apr 12, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Largest paychecks line Citibank workers wallets

By Kang Seung-woo Employees of Citibank Korea were found to be the highest paid among people working for the nation’s major lenders, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Monday. Based on reports submitted by eight local banks, the financial watchdog said Citibank employees averaged 66 million won ($60,984) in annual salaries in 2010. The eight banks included Kookmin, Woori, Hana, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), SC First Bank, Shinhan and Korea Exchange Bank, along with Citibank. The state-run IBK came in second with 63 million won, followed by Woori and SC First with 61 million won, respectively. KEB paid 58 million won to its employees last year, while those of Kookmin and Shinhan received an average 56 million won. Hana Bank was at the bottom, with its employees getting 50 million won. Average employment length was 11.6 years at Hana, shorter than workers at other banks. For instance, SC First employees registered an average 18 years. Also making Hana’s pay lower in comparison is its policy of paying female employees less. Their pay stood at 36

Apr 11, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Johnson & Johnson sells better glucose meter

By Kang Seung-woo As diabetes patients currently reach roughly 5 million, demands for devices that aid in the self monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) are increasing. The significance of a self blood glucose management meter’s accuracy is significant to evaluate the performance of the medical device. After a great number of trials and testing over a considerable period, Johnson & Johnson, the largest SMBG seller worldwide, is well-prepared to provide authentic monitoring. SMBG helps patients and healthcare professionals select the appropriate treatment by analyzing the patients’ blood glucose levels in a timely fashion. The size of the local SMBG market is estimated to be over 60 to 70 billion won ($55.14 million to $64.33 million) and it is expected that the market will be even larger after July this year because patients of SMBG of type 1 diabetes mellitus, which is known as juvenile diabetes, will starting then, be able to receive reimbursements from the National Health Insurance Corp. (NHIC). However, proper awareness and understanding of the importance of SMBG acc

Apr 10, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Govt regulations crippling online game industry

By Yoon Ja-young Online games can be considered the cash cow of the information technology (IT) industry. But local gaming businesses, which once succeeded in taking a huge slice of the pie in the global market, fear that they may lose competitiveness due to government regulations. They say the government plans to impose a curfew and the pre-release reviewing system on games result from outdated stigmas. While the governments of other emerging countries like China support the Internet gaming industry, businesses here are experiencing stronger regulations. The government plans to impose a curfew on online computer games past midnight, aiming at curbing game addiction among children and teenagers, is drawing criticism. The compulsory shutdown will automatically sever connections to the games from midnight until 6 a.m. for those under 16. Game firms say the measure would erode industry competitiveness. “To start the shutdown system, it needs increasing server space to store personal information, as well as other additional costs to verify whether the users register with the

Apr 8, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Traditional insurance salespeople decrease

By Kang Seung-woo The number of traditional insurance salespeople has recently decreased as the global financial crisis cost many of them their jobs and other distribution channels have gained popularity here. The Korea Life Insurance Association (KLIA) said Friday that the number of insurance salespeople, called life planners here, that have joined the Seoul-based organization was 149,191 as of January 2011. The nation’s top three life insurers of Samsung, Korea and Kyobo combined to account for 54.8 percent of them at 81,721. By region, Seoul had the most life planners with 61,442, accounting for 41.2 percent of the overall figures followed by Gyeonggi Province and Busan, which had 15,479 and 13,653 respectively. The presence of life planners steadily strengthened from January 2006, when they tallied 123,000, and peaked at 176,090 in December 2008 before declining for 25 straight months. Observers say that the financial turmoil in late 2008 and emerging bancassurance are most responsible for the decrease in the number of the jobs. When the unprecedented ec

Apr 8, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Oil refiners, card firms in blame game

By Kang Seung-woo After a long resistance, refiners have reluctantly joined the government’s move to tame soaring inflation by cutting oil prices. Now they insist it is time for the local credit card sector to join the move with lower commission on fuel prices. Card issuers say that the oil industry’s claim is buck-passing because structurally high oil prices are their own business, turning it into a mudslinging contest. “We will continue to ask card companies to slash commission imposed on credit card sales at gas stations. Card firms take a 1.5 percent commission on oil sales and with the price of fuel jumping of late, they have taken bigger fees, which we believe contributes to the higher cost of fuel,” said Kim Sang-hwan, head of planning the team at the Korea Oil Association (KOA). According to Kim the ratio of credit card settlement at stations mounted to 90 percent last year, with sales reaching 42.3 trillion won. “Despite the current high prices, the credit card sector has solely benefitted from it, so they need to cut commission rates in order to help troub

Apr 8, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Oil companies adopt different schemes in price cut

By Kang Seung-woo Oil refiners are slashing their prices. But when it comes down to bringing the benefits of lower gas prices to consumers, they are going in different directions. In less than a week, four major refiners, SK Innovation, S-Oil, GS Caltex and Hyundai Oilbank, have cut the prices of gasoline and diesel by a uniform 100 won ($0.09) per liter. This reduction went into effect on Thursday and will last three months. SK, the nation’s largest crude refiner, and GS, are offering a discount of 100 won per liter in the form of refunds that consumers can receive through credit card settlement or membership cards, while S-Oil and Hyundai are directly offering lower prices at the gas stations. “Our method will ensure gas stations will deliver a full discount to customers,” said an official of SK Innovation. “Smaller S-Oil and Hyundai can’t do what we can because they don’t have as good a ‘cash-back’ system as ours.” S-Oil says that their own system of marking down the supply price will better ease the public’s burden of fuel costs. “As SK will take a few week

Apr 7, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Top regulator opposes expansion

By Kang Seung-woo The nation’s financial watchdog said Thursday that it plans to closely watch whether domestic banks will stage overheated competition to expand their size. “Due to the global financial crisis and loan-loss provision, local banks did not go all-out last year to crank up their assets. But they are likely to become proactive this year to expand their businesses,’’ Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Kwon Hyouk-se told reporters in a meeting. “Although innovative and creative competition can raise the efficiency of the financial market, overly intensified cutthroat races can increase risks, which tend to harm profitability, liquidity and fiscal soundness. According to the FSS, the total assets of local banks, which stood at 1,875 trillion won in 2008, dropped to 1,800 trillion won in 2009 before edging up to 1,842 trillion won last year. “Banks need to maintain the growth of their total assets at an appropriate level within the limit of the nation’s economic growth rate,” said Kwon who took charge of the FSS last month. But the 54-year-old

Apr 7, 2011By Kang Seung-woo
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