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Lee Kyung-min

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Economy

Former state auditor to become standing auditor at LH

Yeom Ho-yeolBy Lee Kyung-min Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) said Thursday that its new standing auditor Yeom Ho-yeol was sworn in Monday.The former senior auditor of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has 22 years of experience in auditing state-run organizations.He is expected to strengthen the ethical standards of LH, which has been hit for a lack of discipline and code of conduct. The land ministry-supervised entity came under tight public scrutiny after many of its employees were found to have engaged in land and property speculation with inside information that was not public.The scandal has since intensified to include public servants. Of the more than 740 officials questioned on suspicion of abuse of government-managed data and insider information, 47 were referred to the prosecution. The total amount of land ― worth over 24 billion won ($21.3 million) ― purchased by them will not be traded until those prosecuted are tried and receive a court verdict. Yeom graduated from Seoul National University and began his professional career at Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

May 6, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Former state auditor to become standing auditor at LH
Economy

'Kakao is willfully overlooking financial fraud on Kakao Talk'

Officials from a coalition of financial consumer groups, along with a lawyer representing them, hold a press conference before filing a complaint against Kakao Corp. at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Tuesday. Yonhap By Lee Kyung-min A coalition of financial consumer groups filed a complaint with the prosecution against Kakao Corp., claiming that the operator of the nation's popular online platform Kakao Talk is willfully overlooking many instances of financial fraud, involving users of the messenger service.The four groups say Kakao has yet to take any action, despite a number of complaints filed by many consumers that have fallen victim to ads run by people using accounts stolen from financial experts ― notably market analysts at brokerage firms and fund managers.Also left unanswered in many cases were complaints from financial experts who reported identity theft.The complaint was filed with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. Kakao may face charges of aiding and abetting capital market law violations.One of the victims said he wired 200 million wo

May 5, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
'Kakao is willfully overlooking financial fraud on Kakao Talk'
Economy

Rising consumer prices fan inflation concerns

By Lee Kyung-min Consumer prices rose 2.3 percent in April, mostly due to a spike in agricultural produce prices triggered by the H5N8 bird flu epidemic, as well as a jump in industrial product prices, sparked by rising oil prices, data showed Tuesday.The rapid year-on-year increase in consumer prices, especially for food products and daily necessities closely related to household spending, is fanning concerns over inflation. These rising living costs translate into reduced disposable income for many low-income earners struggling to cope with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.The government acknowledges that consumer price growth is expected to surpass 2 percent in the near term. But it maintains that the figure will inch down in the latter half of this year, driven by a variety of efforts to keep the prices of key goods under control.Statistics Korea data showed the consumer price index in April at 107.39, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier and up 0.2 percent from a month earlier.The year-on-year figure is the highest since August 2017, when it stood at 2.5 percent.“A rise

May 4, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Rising consumer prices fan inflation concerns
Economy

Over half agree to taxing income from crypto investments

gettyimagesbankBy Lee Kyung-min More than half of all Koreans agree that investment income from cryptocurrency should be taxed, according to a local poll, Monday.However, of those aged between 20 and 29, people against the much-debated idea slightly outnumbered those in favor of it. They remain the only age group voicing opposition to the tax burden on the new investment vehicle that is emerging increasingly as an alternative to assets held in equity or real estate.The poll came amid the government's unwavering push to tax virtual assets starting January next year, with debate continuing over whether digital coins should be legally recognized as assets at all.Whether the financial authorities should put in place consumer protection measures is another sticking point, mostly due to calls from young crypto investors ― mostly those in their 20s and 30s. They claim they are left out of the rare opportunity to increase their assets on the back of “overflowing liquidity” in the financial market.The survey was conducted April 30 by Realmeter of 500 men and women aged 18 and olde

May 3, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Over half agree to taxing income from crypto investments
Economy

VIG Partners mulling investment in K bank

By Lee Kyung-min VIG Partners, a Seoul-based private equity firm, is reportedly considering between 70 billion won ($62.6 million) and 100 billion won in equity financing for Korea's internet-only bank, K bank, according to industry sources, Sunday.This development is the latest in the months-long effort towards a capital increase of 670 billion won by the internet-only bank whose market competitiveness has fallen behind that of its rival Kakao Bank, mostly due to a failure to draw in enough capital investment.The addition of K bank to VIG's investment portfolio will help the private equity firm diversify its earnings, given the surging demand for online transactions brought on and prolonged by the COVID-19 pandemic.The deadlocked discussion on the financing picked up after K bank became open to granting new investors drag-along rights, whereby majority shareholders are able to force minority shareholders to join in the sale of a company. However, the agreement requires the majority owner doing the “dragging” to give the minority shareholders the same price, terms and con

May 2, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
VIG Partners mulling investment in K bank
Economy

Lack of rules on cryptocurrency confuses market participants

gettyimagesbankBy Lee Kyung-minCommercial lenders and cryptocurrency exchange operators remained confused Sunday over an unclear set of revisions that require the former to essentially oversee the latter following the passage of a related bill governing digital coins.Many of them say the lack of government guidelines on anti-money laundering and risk evaluation methods could derail their current individual screening measures at any moment, given sketchy policy stances influenced by volatile public sentiment.The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), an organization in charge of anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism under the Financial Services Commission (FSC), has yet to provide any guidelines other than: “Banks should set up evaluation criteria of their own.” This pushed the Korea Federation of Banks to come up with such measures, mostly by relying on outside consultants.According to the revisions that took effect in March, the operators should only use real-name exchange accounts approved by banks which are responsible for a comprehensive evaluati

May 2, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Lack of rules on cryptocurrency confuses market participants
Economy

Deloitte-Kyobo feud escalates in local court

The headquarters of Kyobo Life Insurance in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. / Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min Deloitte Anjin officials denied charges, last week, that it had exercised discretion to help inflate the value of put options to be sold by Affinity Equity Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm (PEF), saying prosecutors' claims lacked the logic to indict its accountants.This is the latest development in the years-long dispute between Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae and the company's financial investors represented by a consortium led by the Hong Kong-based PEF. The dispute is over whether the consortium can exercise a put option at nearly double the price Shin was willing to pay. A put option is a contract giving the owner the right to sell _ or sell short _ a specified amount of an underlying security at a predetermined price within a specified time frame.During the hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court, last week, an attorney representing the accountants said the prosecution failed to identify how the indicted officials violated related laws in apprai

Apr 30, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Deloitte-Kyobo feud escalates in local court
Economy

Gov't to tighten lending rules to curb household debt

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki speaks during a meeting with top financial regulators at the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank). YonhapBy Lee Kyung-min The government decided Thursday to tighten lending rules in stages to slow down the pace of household debt growth, which is expected to hit 6 percent this year and 4 percent in 2022, levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic started.Through the measure, the government seeks to rein in the steep increase in borrowing over the past year amid the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic, as the economy shows clear signs of a rebound with the prospect of herd immunity being achieved sooner.Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said a new regulation, called the debt-service ratio (DSR), will be applied to better manage the debt increase.DSR is measured by the borrower's annual income divided by the principal and interest on all household 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 only principa

Apr 29, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Gov't to tighten lending rules to curb household debt
Economy

Shinhan affiliates suffer losses in Indonesia

The headquarters of Shinhan Investment Corp. on Yeouido, Seoul. / Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min Shinhan Financial Group's banking, financial investment and credit card businesses in Indonesia suffered losses last year.The poor performance was most pronounced at the group's bank subsidiary. Shinhan Bank Indonesia reported an impairment loss of 14.2 billion won ($12.7 million) in 2020, accounting for over a third, or 34.3 percent, of the group's impairment loss of 41.4 billion won last year.An impairment loss is a decrease in the net carrying value of an asset ― measured by acquisition cost minus depreciation.If the future value of an asset is expected to be significantly lower than the carrying price following a steep drop in market value, this is treated as a loss in financial statements.The 14.2 billion won loss caused the financial group's goodwill to drop to 468.99 billion won in 2020, down from 469.49 billion won a year earlier.Goodwill in finance is calculated by taking the purchase price of a company and subtracting the difference between the fair market value of the assets

Apr 28, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Shinhan affiliates suffer losses in Indonesia
Economy

Korea posts faster-than-expected recovery in Q1

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki speaks during a presser at the Sejong Government Complex, Tuesday. YonhapGDP grows 1.6% on solid investment, exportsBy Lee Kyung-minThe Korean economy grew 1.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, led mostly by a recovery in exports, investment and private consumption, raising hopes for a faster rebound of Asia's fourth-largest economy this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Tuesday.The Ministry of Economy and Finance said the economy recovered at the fastest rate among the global top 10 economies, overshooting market consensus by about twice the estimate that projected less than 1 percent growth.Korea is one of only a few advanced countries alongside the U.S. and Australia expecting to see their GDP growth recover to pre-crisis levels this year.Yet, the surprising growth measured by key indices still calls for government assistance to lessen the yearlong financial difficulty experienced by low-income earners, small business owners and the self-employed.Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Mini

Apr 27, 2021By Lee Kyung-min
Korea posts faster-than-expected recovery in Q1
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