The Korea Times

Corporate culture stunts flexitime

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Cho Su-jin, a worker in the financial industry, usually leaves work at 5 p.m. and heads to a swimming pool. Thanks to newly-introduced flexible working schedules, her daily life has improved greatly. "As a woman, it is tough to work in this area for a long time," said the early 30-something Cho, who starts work at 7 a.m. "After calling it a day earlier, I spend most of my time on self improvement. I go to the pool, take computer programming classes and study to get more certificates. "I felt some eyebrows were raised over my behavior at first, but now I am used to it," she said. Overall throughout Korea Inc., employees like Cho are rare, as they are not used to this concept and they fear that they will stand out among the crowds by taking advantage of it. The discretionary flexible work schedule, in contrast to traditional work arrangements, gives employees a choice over the actual times they work their contracted hours, meaning they can select the beginning of business (BOB) and close of business (COB) in accordance with their

Jun 24, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Korea better off outside MSCI

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Despite Korea's failure to join the league of developed market in Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI)'s equity indexes, analysts say it is not a bad sign for the nation's stock market. "If Korea joins the ranks of developed market, it will be not favorable to Korea," Sakthi Siva, who serves as Managing Director and Head of Global Emerging Markets Strategy at Credit Suisse, told reporters in a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. "(If Korea joins the developed market), it will be a small fish in a big pond, while Korea is a big fish in a small pond in the emerging market.''

Jun 22, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Is megabank a financial panacea?

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter The subprime mortgage crisis has given the financial industry many lessons, with one of them being that bigger is not necessarily better for a bank. The Korean banking industry, as well as regulators, has been almost convinced about this newly-acquired wisdom, their megabank plan being put on the back burner. But now, Euh Yoon-dae, nominee for chairman of the KB Financial Group, is pushing the megabank debate back to square one. As soon as Euh was nominated, the former Korea University president talked about the possibility of KB taking over Woori Financial Group or the Korea Development Bank. After receiving a rap on the wrist for talking about his plans even before his nomination was made final, Euh backtracked a bit, saying he was not in a hurry. "We still have time before the government-set deadlines for banking sector privatization," he told The Korea Times. But this didn't mean that Euh has changed his mind, observers say. The megabank push was one of the key pledges of the Lee Myung-bak administration, with former Finance Minis

Jun 21, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

BOK chief drops strong hint of rate hike

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Kim Choong-soo strongly indicated an upcoming key rate hike after having kept it at 2 percent for the 16th straight month. "BOK plans to manage the monetary policy in a way to help support the solid growth on the foundation of price stability," Kim said in a forum held in Seoul. "If the current accommodative policy stance is prolonged, however, it could bring about risks of inflation and an increase in asset prices," Kim said. He also said the eurozone debt crisis could add downside risks on the outlook for the global economy. The BOK needs to take these two aspects into consideration. Kim followed Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, who said Korea could face a faster-than-expected price hike in the latter part of this year Friday. It is the first time that the central bank chief directly mentioned the risk of inflation, although he has talked about growing inflationary pressures, which is interpreted as a signal that the government is preparing for an exit strategy from the current pump priming. Mar

Jun 21, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Inflation may accelerate faster than expected

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter The nation’s top economic policymaker said Friday that inflationary pressure is expected to build faster than expected in the second half of this year, hinting that the government will soon brace for an exit strategy. Given that the government has withdrawn most of its stimulus measures on the fiscal side, this can be interpreted as a sign that an interest rate hike will come sooner rather than later. “Korea could face a faster-than-expected price hike in the latter part of this year because the velocity of money circulation is rising and produce prices are also increasing in line with the economic recovery,” Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said Friday. Earlier this week, he also told heads of economic research institutes that the government will try to keep inflation in check. There have been growing calls for Seoul to end its credit-easing campaign amid concerns over asset bubbles in the stock and property markets, and inflation. However, the Bank of Korea (BOK) has kept the rate on hold at a record low of 2 perce

Jun 18, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Chin signs cooperation pact with US

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Korea's top financial regulator Chin Dong-soo has made a brisk trip to Canada and the United States to sign a comprehensive agreement for a joint effort to bring stability to the global financial sector. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Thursday that Commissioner Chin visited Toronto, Canada, to attend the Financial Stability Board (FSB) meeting ahead of the G-20 meeting there. Chin hopped over to Washington to have a meeting with Ben Bernanke, the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, for in-depth discussions over regulatory matters on a bilateral and global level. He also visited the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) in Washington to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU calls for both nations to issue notices before conducting investigations or slapping punishment against local bank branches from their home countries. It also urges them to notify each other of local business expansion of banks within their

Jun 17, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Shinhan maps out overseas expansion

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Shinhan Bank has made a bold foray into international territory in its ploy to overcome local financial market saturation. The 2008 recession brought about a seismic change in the global financial industry, giving the lender an opportunity to expand overseas. Shinhan CEO Lee Baek-soon has started looking beyond local borders since 2007, setting up Shinhan Khmer Bank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Korea's third-largest bank has been gaining steam in its global banking service, beefing up its business all over the globe. In 2008, the financial institution established Shinhan Bank China and Shinhan Bank Kazakhstan, and founded last year were Shinhan Bank Canada, Shinhan Bank Japan and Shinhan Bank Vietnam. As of March 2010, Shinhan Bank established 48 global networks in 14 countries and 10 out of 48 are local subsidiaries. Future plan for global business Thus far, foreign branches of Korean lenders have mainly dealt with Korean residents abroad, but Shinhan is pursuing a different path, reaching out to local people. Along with

Jun 16, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Some tell Euh to look overseas for KB expansion

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Despite his reputation as a friend of President Lee Myung-bak, analysts are taking a wait-and-see attitude withholding any immediate reaction about the nomination of Euh Yoon-dae as chairman of KB Financial Group. They say that filling the vacancy is a good thing, clearing up uncertainty about the future of Korea's leading bank, while believing that Euh's relationship with Lee may help him if he pushes KB to take over the government's controlling stake in Woori Bank when it is privatized. But some say this sort of move may turn out to be ill-advised. "Appointing the chairman itself is a good sign for the group at a crucial juncture because the absence of a boss has stopped strategic decision-making," said Ku Yong-uk, a senior analyst at Daewoo Securities. "Rather than evaluating him now, it is better for us to see how he will reorganize and lead the company first." Euh, 65, has been working on a blue-ribbon committee to burnish Korea's overseas image. He was a professor at Lee's alma mater Korea University, and had been considered for

Jun 16, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

Trade dependence tops 82%

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter The Korean economy's dependence on trade, the ratio of imports and exports against gross domestic product, reached 82.4 percent last year. This is down around 10 percent from the 92.3 percent seen in 2008, but is still significantly higher than the 50 to 60 percent range seen in previous years. Other advanced and emerging economies are below the 50 percent range. The high dependency means the economy is vulnerable to outside factors such as global contractions in demand, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. "A fall in oil prices coupled with contracted trade due to the economic slump drove down trade dependency last year, but it remained at a very high level, leaving the nation's economy vulnerable to external shocks," a finance ministry official said Wednesday. Until 2007, Korea's trade dependency had never passed the 80-percent level, which indicates that economic uncertainties here have grown. The ratio logged 51.1 percent in 1990, but climbed to 65.2 percent after the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and 1998.

Jun 16, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Companies

OECD urges Korea to map out exit strategy

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter South Korea should map out an exit strategy from the current stimulus pumped, low interest rate powered economic policy, an international body recommended Tuesday. In its report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that Korea is making a strong recovery from the global recession, and needs to start to raise interest rates. The OECD recommendation came at a time when there is an ardent discussion about rate hikes. Korea's economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis in late 2008, sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, pushing the Bank of Korea (BOK) to reduce its key interest rate from 5.25 percent in 2008 to a record-low 2 percent by February 2009. Since then, the central bank has maintained the rate for the 16th straight month, citing potential risks to the export-driven economy from the eurozone debt crisis. The OECD report said that Korea's public debt needs to be reduced. "Maintaining a low public debt burden is an important priority for Korea, given rapid population ageing and unce

Jun 15, 2010By Kang Seung-woo

Kang Seung-woo

Read more

Corporate culture stunts flexitime

Korea better off outside MSCI

Is megabank a financial panacea?

BOK chief drops strong hint of rate hike

Inflation may accelerate faster than expected

Chin signs cooperation pact with US

Shinhan maps out overseas expansion

Some tell Euh to look overseas for KB expansion

Trade dependence tops 82%

OECD urges Korea to map out exit strategy

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