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Lee Kyung-min

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Economy

NH Securities under fire for disregarding anti-coal pledge

NH Investment & Securities CEO Chung Young-chae. Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min A coalition of environmental advocacy groups is blasting NH Investment & Securities for refusing to withdraw from a financing plan to build Samcheok Blue Power, a coal-powered plant whose construction has been suspended for eight months due to a failure to meet related requirements following an environmental impact assessment.This according to the environmentalists is a “flagrant disregard” of the anti-coal initiative pledged by the securities firm's holding company, NH Financial Group, in February.The coalition, Korea Beyond Coal, held a press conference in front of NH Investment & Securities' headquarters in Yeouido, Wednesday, criticizing the firm's plan to issue corporate bonds to finance up to 800 billion won ($706 million) in construction costs.The plant in Gangwon Province is Korea's last coal-powered plant in the making, a joint project being pursued by POSCO Energy, POSCO E&C and Doosan Heavy Industries.Construction began in 2018, but was suspended last October due t

Jun 18, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
NH Securities under fire for disregarding anti-coal pledge
Economy

FSC seeks to retain finance employees, support industry

Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo / Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is rushing to come up with measures to retain jobs in the sector as the industry increasingly slashes in-person services amid digitization, coupled with the emergence of IT firms expanding into the territory requiring highly trained professionals with smart technology expertise.The FSC and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups submitted a proposal on ways to create jobs in the financial industry to a presidential committee Friday.The measure comes amid a steady decline in the number of jobs in the industry. Data from Statistics Korea showed the number of financial employees fell to 778,000 last year, after reaching a peak of 878,000 in 2013. They accounted for 2.9 percent of all jobs in 2020, down from 3.5 percent in that year.About 13,000 jobs in the banking sector disappeared over the same period, while 8,000 were slashed in the credit card, car-financing and leasing sectors.By contrast, internet-only banks have created 1,300 jobs since 2016.Under the measure,

Jun 18, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
FSC seeks to retain finance employees, support industry
Banking & Finance

KAIST scientist wins 2021 IBM Academic Award

Lee Sang-wan / Courtesy of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and TechnologyBy Lee Kyung-min Lee Sang-wan, an associate professor in the department of bio and brain engineering at KAIST, was named as a 2021 recipient of one of the IBM Academic Awards, the university said Thursday.The award was given in recognition of his contributions in the field of neuroscience-inspired artificial intelligence. Lee is the founding director of the KAIST Center for Neuroscience-inspired Artificial Intelligence.The IBM Academic Awards are given to those who foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities and IBM researchers and technologists worldwide.The awards seek to promote curriculum innovation to stimulate growth in emerging academic disciplines. Recipients receive “hardware, software, services, IBM Cloud access and cash,” according to the IBM website.“The study of interpreting the brain's complex information processing processes using machine learning theory and transplanting the brain's high-level information processing into an artificial intelligence model

Jun 17, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
KAIST scientist wins 2021 IBM Academic Award
Companies

GS Caltex makes first Korean purchase of carbon-neutral crude oil

GS Caltex CEO Hur Sae-hong By Lee Kyung-min GS Caltex has purchased 2 million barrels of carbon-neutral crude oil in a bid to take the lead in fulfilling Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria here.The Korean refiner said Thursday that the crude oil was produced at the Johan Sverdrup oil field in Norway by Lundin Energy, the world's first company certified for its carbon-neutral crude oil.GS Caltex's daily maximum crude oil output amounts to 800,000 barrels. The 2 million barrels of Norwegian carbon-neutral crude oil to be transported to Korea in September represent less than three days' output. GS Caltex's purchase is significant in that it introduces carbon-neutral crude oil to Korea for the first time among domestic energy companies, the company said.Lundin became one of the largest oil developers in Europe after discovering the oil field near Norway. Johan Svedrup oil fields, located 140 kilometers west of Stavanger, has a reserve total of 2.7 billio

Jun 17, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
GS Caltex makes first Korean purchase of carbon-neutral crude oil
Economy

ANALYSIS Investors find opportunity in 'metaverse' technology

Avatars created on Zepeto, a metaverse affiliate of Naver Z. Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min Market participants are paying keen attention as to whether the “metaverse” will become a future growth investment, boosted by the soaring popularity of online platforms where they can play games using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).A combination of “meta” and “universe,” the term refers to a collective, virtual, shared space, where space restrictions have disappeared due to a mixture of virtual and reality.KB Asset Management rolled out an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will invest in up to 50 metaverse companies in Korea, China, Japan and the U.S. This is the first time a local asset management firm has introduced a product related to consumer activities in a virtual shared space.The product, KB Global Metaverse Economic Fund, will invest in the manufacturing of VR and AR devices, including Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, as well as software makers NVIDIA and Unity Software.Platform operators and content creators, including Roblox, Naver

Jun 15, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
[ANALYSIS] Investors find opportunity in 'metaverse' technology
Economy

Banks poised to raise lending rates

gettyimagesbankBy Lee Kyung-min Commercial lenders are likely to raise lending rates amid the government's efforts to curb soaring household debt. Korea has seen the fastest rise in household debt among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).The government seeks to rein in the steep increase in borrowing over the past year amid the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the economy shows clear signs of a rebound with the prospect of herd immunity being achieved sooner than expected.The pre-emptive move by lenders comes shortly before the implementation of the debt-service ratio (DSR) being capped at 40 percent as part of tightened lending rules to be overseen by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) starting July.DSR is measured by a borrower's annual income divided by the principal and interest on all household loans including mortgage, credit loans, card loans and stock loans. It is more stringent than the debt-to-income (DTI) ratio which factors in only interest payments on loans, with mortgage principal being the onl

Jun 14, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Banks poised to raise lending rates
Economy

Finance ministry criticized for inaccurate tax revenue projections

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki attends a meeting at the Seoul Government Complex, June 4. Korea Times file By Lee Kyung-min The government is coming under criticism over about 30 trillion won ($26.8 billion) in expected excess revenue this year, a result of inaccurate tax revenue projections which some economists say limited fiscal discretion and effective debt management.The 30 trillion won accounts for about 10 percent of 282.7 trillion won in tax revenue the government expected last year to collect this year.The error ratio, the difference between total expected revenue and the amount collected divided by the total expected revenue, has risen to 10.6 percent, the first time ever for the figure to record a double digits.The government maintains that the figure exceeding 10 percent reflects the harsh economic and financial conditions last year when the projections were made in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.Yet such a large difference un

Jun 14, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Finance ministry criticized for inaccurate tax revenue projections
Economy

Crypto exchanges required to reduce trading irregularities

gettyimagesbankBy Lee Kyung-minBanks will be required to ensure that their virtual currency exchange clients are classified as high-risk and subject to strengthened financial transaction monitoring and user ID verification, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Sunday.The lenders will have to deny services to customers that refuse to comply with ID verification procedures, and report suspicious transactions to the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), an anti-money laundering unit under the FSC.The guideline is a regulatory action set to affect around 60 crypto exchanges operating without FSC permission, aimed at protecting customers against fraud and allowing them to get their money back if the exchanges shut down in the future.Currently, operators can set up exchanges without major regulatory hurdles including user ID verification responsibilities and real name-based exchange accounts.Exchange operators seeking to keep running will have to submit a request for a license by Sept. 24, after which the intelligence unit will begin a three-month review of their trad

Jun 13, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Crypto exchanges required to reduce trading irregularities
Economy

Kakao's non-life insurance biz taking shape

By Lee Kyung-min The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Thursday that it has granted preliminary approval for Kakao's plan to set up a non-life digital insurance firm, clearing the way for the IT giant to expand in a niche online market easily accessed by young customers seeking short-term, cheap liability products.The success of the insurance business will hinge on how fast and accurately the firm identifies subscriber demands, propped up by a targeted marketing scheme that best utilizes Kakao Talk, Kakao's messenger service with the largest market share.The FSC said it approved Kakao's plan in a regular meeting Wednesday, as the firm met requirements on capital, business plan feasibility and sound management.The envisioned insurer with a capital of 100 billion won ($89 million) will be set up by Kakao Pay and Kakao Corp. Kakao Pay will put up a respective 60 percent of the capital and Kakao Corp. 40 percent.“The insurance firm to be set up by Kakao is expected to contribute to promoting consumer benefits, competition in the industry and innovation through its insur

Jun 10, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Kakao's non-life insurance biz taking shape
Economy

Korea vows to create ESG ecosystem for sustainable growth

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki delivers an opening speech during the 2021 Korea Times Global ESG Forum at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukGovernment plans to unveil K-ESG guidelines this year By Lee Kyung-min Korea will do its utmost to create a private sector-led ecosystem that promotes environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) values by establishing the necessary infrastructure and incentive systems, the country's top policymaker said Thursday. “In a situation where ESG management is gaining traction worldwide, the government plans to introduce Korea's ESG guidelines by the end of this year so that local firms can prepare for the global spread of ESG,” Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said during the 2021 Korea Times Global ESG Forum at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) building in Seoul“At the same time, the government will set up an ESG platform that can offer related comprehensive information for Korean businesses and

Jun 10, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Korea vows to create ESG ecosystem for sustainable growth
  • 'COVID-19 pandemic accelerating shift to ESG'
  • Korea Times sheds light on ESG through global forum
  • Governance viewed as critical catalyst for ESG management
  • PHOTOS 2021 Korea Times Global ESG Forum
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