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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

Pessimists regaining ground on Europe crisis

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter With the Euro-zone crisis renewing fears over another financial crisis, once-besieged economic pessimists have been regaining their footing. Typical naysayers Nouriel Roubini, a New York University (NYU) professor, and Andy Xie, an independent economist in Shanghai, China have gushed doom and gloom on the creaky world economy. Roubini, who forecast the U.S. recession more than a year before it began, told CNBC Thursday that the stock markets would suffer a sharp 20 percent decline over the coming months amid concerns that the world economy will continue to weaken. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 376.36 points, or 3.6 percent, to close at 10,068.01 Thursday, its third straight day of losses and the biggest percentage fall since March 5 last year. He said that Europe's crisis and the U.S. slowdown along with the uncertainty of other industrialized economies would weigh down on investors in the coming months. In addition, Roubini, also known as "Dr. Doom" for his dire economic outlook, warned of a double-dip downturn, meaning

May 21, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Samsung Life punished for inteference

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Friday that it punished seven Samsung Life Insurance executives and employees for having interfered in its inspection and for other irregular activities in management. The financial watchdog said it ordered salaries for two employees reduced and reprimanded three, while giving two executives warnings. According to the top regulator, the nation's largest insurer did not submit documents it requested during a five-week comprehensive audit of the insurer late last year. It also slapped Samsung with a 10 million won ($8,380) fine after finding that it failed to fulfill its obligation of reporting to the regulator changes in critical illness insurances, on top of wrongfully calculating assumed risks. Initially, the FSS decided to penalize 18 executives and employees in April. The FSS conducted an inspection of the insurer from Oct. 29 to Dec. 2 last year before deciding what punishment to impose.

May 21, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

4 to be shortlisted for KB chairmanship on June 4

The final four contenders to become the CEO of KB Financial Group will be announced on June 4. Its recommendation committee met Thursday in Seoul and came up with 33 candidates selected by three outsourced personnel search organizations. The committee, comprised of nine outside directors, plans to hold a meeting on June 4 and whittle down the roster to four after reviewing the candidates. It will finalize its choice sometime in mid-June, and after gaining final approval at a shareholders' meeting, the winning candidate will be inaugurated for a three-year term.

May 20, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Seoul not ready for exit strategy

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Despite growing calls for a key rate hike, South Korea is not likely to implement an exit strategy in the coming months as top economic policymakers have joined forces to brace for fallout from the debt crisis in Europe. Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said Wednesday that the nation would maintain its current economic policy and Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Chin Dong-soo is in a position to look to reinforce the nation's financial system. ``The international financial market is still vulnerable mainly due to the European crisis,'' Yoon said in a meeting of key policymakers. ``As raw material prices still have the possibility of soaring, we will stay on the current course and concentrate on job creation and domestic investment.'' His remark made it clear that it is not the right time to touch the key interest rate, which has been kept on hold at a record low of 2 percent for 15 straight months, amid clamors for a rate increase. Recently, local economic research institutes have insisted that the governme

May 19, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Tougher rules due for rating agencies

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter The government is planning to bring transparency to the way rating agencies do business. The step follows criticisms that the global rating agencies have not done their jobs properly, helping trigger the two financial crises within three years. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Wednesday that first it will more strongly enforce a set of regulations introduced in January, leaving the doors open for more new regulations later; In January, the FSS introduced regulations for regular checks on whether the agencies collude to give good grades for certain firms or grade ``client" firms better. Also likely to be introduced were measures echoing those being taken by the United States and Europe. The United States voted to end the ability of financial institutions to choose their credit rating agencies that rate their investment products and to end the government's reliance on ratings agencies as a standard for determining credit worthiness last week. In the European Union (EU), rating agencies are barred from consulting servic

May 19, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Top 10% earn over 10 mil. won monthly

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter For the first time, the average monthly earnings of the top 10 percent in the income bracket surpassed 10 million won ($8,800) in the first quarter, raising the possibility that the global financial crisis has been worsening the income polarization between the rich and the poor, Statistics Korea said Tuesday. The statistics agency said that the households in the upper 10 percent earned 10.15 million won on average in the first three months of this year, up 2.54 million won or 33.5 percent from 7.6 million won in the first quarter of 2005. This is in stark contrast to the bottom 10 percent of households that witnessed their average monthly income rise by just 170,000 won to 581,000 won during the same period. "The imbalance of income distribution usually hits the highest mark in the first quarter partly due to the lunar new year bonus," said an official of Statistics Korea. When it comes to the growth rate, the low-income households tallied 8.1 percent higher than the high incomers, but the latter marked a 2.37 million won hike. The

May 18, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

New accounting system to aid transparency

This is the third in a series highlighting the strategies of Korea’s leading accounting firms ahead of the full-fledged introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards in 2011. ? ED. By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Deloitte Anjin, one of the leading accounting companies in Korea, is certainly expected to ascend to the No. 1 spot in the sector. But Anjin, the Korean branch of the U.S.-based Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu group, is not just limited to being branded as the nation’s best accountant, as its CEO Lee Jae-sool leads his firm to earn recognition in other places ― corporate social responsibility (CSR) and future-oriented green businesses. ``I have been interested in CSR and the head office traditionally values it’’ Lee said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. ``The corporate body has done these kinds of works well enough for others to come and benchmark us.’’ Deloitte Anjin signed an agreement with the Ministry of Labor and Social Enterprise Support Network (SESNET) in July 2008 to provide a variety of services for social enterprises. `

May 18, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Korea 14th purchasing power

Population at 46 mil., 25th globally By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter South Korea ranked 14th in the world in 2009 in real purchasing power-based gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report released by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In its latest World Factbook, the CIA reported that the nation's GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) accelerated to $1.36 trillion (1,568 trillion won) in 2009, which ranked 14th among 227 countries. PPP is the currency conversion rate that allows for international comparisons of GDP by reflecting the differences in price levels between countries. Korea's economic size is comparable to that of Mexico ($1.48 trillion), Spain ($1.37 trillion) and Canada ($1.29 trillion). The European Union (EU) placed first in the table with $14.51 trillion and the United States was second at $14.26 trillion. China, Japan and India rounded out the top five with $8.79 trillion, $4.14 trillion and $3.56 trillion, respectively. North Korea ranked 97th recording $40 billion. According to the report, Japan's economy was triple tha

May 17, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Task force planned to curb hard selling

By Kang Seung-woo Staff Reporter The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Sunday that it will form a taskforce to introduce a guideline on the sale of financial products in a move to ban local banks from forcing borrowers to buy unwanted products in return for receiving loans. In a related move, the financial watchdog also sent a document to local banks instructing them to reform their sales practices in order to root out unfair sales activities, known as ``hard selling.'' Hard selling is where banks allow loans to their clients ― corporate and individuals ― on the condition that they buy or subscribe to a variety of financial products. The move comes as the number of illegal activities has increased in the implementation of an excessive result-oriented business policy by a few banks, so it asked them to revise their Key Performance Indicators (KPI) system to curb the side-effects. ``There are many occasions that banks force clients to sign unwanted contracts, such as for retirement funds, savings, and insurance, taking advantage of their superior position,'' t

May 16, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
Companies

Debt-to-GDP ratio to fall to mid-20% by 2015

By Kang Seung-woo Staff reporter Korea's fiscal soundness is expected to become one of the healthiest among advanced economies in the coming years, with its debt to GDP ratio falling to mid-20 percent by 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In its latest fiscal outlook report, the IMF forecasted that the ratio for Asia's fourth-largest economy will stand at 26.2 percent in 2015, the third lowest among the 28 industrialized economies, only behind Hong Kong (0.5 percent) and Australia (20.9 percent). New Zealand and Switzerland, which each sits at 36.1 percent and 36.2 percent, rounded out the top five. On the contrary, rich countries are likely to see their liabilities grow. Japan is forecast to notch a debt-to-GDP ratio of 250 percent, the worst among the citied members and the United States and France also had bad projections - 109.7 percent and 94.4 percent, respectively. The so-called PIGS countries ― Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain ― which are struggling with huge budget deficits ― are still expected to be stuck in a bad state, when all

May 16, 2010By Kang Seung-woo
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