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Lee Kyung-min

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Banking & Finance

Banks employ AI to forestall mis-selling

gettyimagesbank By Lee Kyung-min Banks are implementing artificial intelligence (AI) to make sure the sellers of highly complicated financial products are fully informed about investment risks, industry officials said Tuesday.Yet concerns remain that more specific measures will be needed given the DLF fiasco laid bare the so-called “digitized” bank work that did little to ensure consumer protection and was used only for efficient and brisk sales of high-yield products. Programs to aid more responsible sales will include handwriting recognition technology and legal compliance reviews, functions that can be more accurately and thoroughly managed by machines than people. The new methods designed to enhance consumer protection are a belated effort to dispel criticism following the DLF fiasco whereby many people, mostly those aged 60 and older, lost their entire investment.DLF is short for derivative-linked funds, intricately structured options-based funds sold by many fi

Feb 16, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Banks employ AI to forestall mis-selling
Economy

'Kakao shares to continue rally on solid performance'

By Lee Kyung-min Shares of Kakao, the operator of Korea's largest mobile communication app KakaoTalk, are expected to rally on the back of the firm's better-than-expected performance, industry analysts said Friday.The shares rallied for the 10th consecutive session from Feb. 3 through Friday, gaining around 20,500 won ($17.32), or 12 percent. The shares closed at 184,500 won, up 1,000 won from the previous session. NH Investment & Securities remained bullish on the stock, largely due to a much-anticipated upturn in the mobility business. “Kakao Mobility will soon see its operating profit grow given the stable customer demand for the chauffeur service,” NH Investment & Securities analyst Ahn Jae-min said.”“Its payment subsidiary KakaoPay is expected to inject more funding into the system thanks to the growing number of users seeking easy and convenient payment solutions not only from Korea but from Japan and Southeast Asian countries as well.”KB Securities had a similar outlook, forecasting the shares to reach 220,000 won.“Kakao's operating

Feb 14, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Economy

Over half of Lime investors to see 50% drop in fund value

Victims of the redemption fiasco caused by Lime Asset Management hold a rally in front of the Financial Supervisory Service in Yeouido, Feb. 14. YonhapOver half of Lime investors to see 50% drop in fund value By Lee Kyung-min Managers of a fund with over 50 percent of its portfolio invested in illiquid assets will no longer be able to attract investors by promising “full redemption,” following strengthened rules on a number of mismanaged financial products, the financial authorities said Friday.The new rule bans such managers from setting up open-end funds, a type of an investment vehicle that allows frequent redemptions via continued flow of new contributions and withdrawals from a pool of investors. Illiquid assets are not easily sold because of its expenses, lack of interested buyers, among other factors revolving around real estate measures, stocks with low trading volume, or collectibles. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced a set of measures amid investors' outcry against what they consider an “oversight

Feb 14, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Over half of Lime investors to see 50% drop in fund value
Economy

Faltering Chinese economy to hamper Korea's growth

Supply chain disruptions could hurt manufacturing sectorBy Lee Kyung-min The Chinese economy reeling from the fast-spreading coronavirus could have a worse-than-expected impact on the Korean economy by impacting the manufacturing industry through supply chain disruptions, economists said Wednesday. They said that the extent of the fallout could be greater than that of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the early 2000s as the global economy relies more heavily on China, the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus. Against this backdrop, the government is being urged to promptly come up with measures to help the adversely affected Korean business in China, while long-term efforts should continue to identify a value chain that could reduce the disproportionate dependence on the world's second-largest economy. S&P Global Ratings said in a Feb. 7 report that the coronavirus impact will slow China's GDP growth to 5 percent in 2020."Most of the economic impact of coronavirus will be felt in the first quarter, and China's recovery will be firmly in place by the third qu

Feb 12, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Faltering Chinese economy to hamper Korea's growth
  • Coronavirus may rattle tech industry's supply chain
  • Hyundai bet big on China. Now coronavirus is twisting its supply chain
Economy

Why people in their 40s keep losing jobs

By Lee Kyung-min The number of jobs for people in their 40s decreased in January for 51 consecutive months, remaining the only age group for which the number of positions decreased, data showed Wednesday.This points to the growing need for the government to come up with tailored measures to help those affected find employment.It needs more than the current job creation initiative defined by older people who have part-time jobs, long criticized as a stopgap measure to create a statistical illusion of employment growth.Statistics Korea data showed the country added 568,000 jobs in January from the year before, hitting its highest since August 2014 when 670,000 jobs were added.Yet 84,000 jobs were lost by the 40-somethings, and the loss was more than made up for by 507,000 jobs added by those aged over 60.Experts said that the key culprit behind the misfortune for those in their 40s was a steady increase of layoffs for that age group amid prolonged economic downturn.“Amid economic downturn, a growing number of firms, particularly in the manufacturing industry, are undergoing restr

Feb 12, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Why people in their 40s keep losing jobs
Economy

Coronavirus to weigh down on Korea's weak exports, investment

gettyimagesbankBy Lee Kyung-min The fast-spreading new coronavirus will have a worse-than-expected impact on Korea's export-reliant economy due to the country's heavy dependence on intermediate goods imported from China, experts said Sunday. The growing pessimism fuels concerns that Asia's fourth-largest economy, still reeling from a slowdown due to the drawn-out U.S.-China feud, should brace for a further drop in exports, investment and consumption. Most international organizations and global investment banks have projected that Korea will not be able to see its exports grow even 3 percent in 2020, a target set by the government in its economic policy outlook at the end of 2019. The most pessimistic view came from the London-based research group Oxford Economics, which said Korea's exports will only grow 0.5 percent year-on-year in 2020. This was followed by JP Morgan Chase and Societe Generale which estimated Korea's export growth rate at 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. Korea's investment growth forecast for February 2020 averaged 1.9 percent, down 0.1 percentage points

Feb 9, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Coronavirus to weigh down on Korea's weak exports, investment
  • KOSPI bounces back from coronavirus fears
Economy

Listed firms pay out handsome dividends for shareholder return

By Lee Kyung-min Listed firms paid out handsome dividends in 2019 ― in a move to give investors more value by strengthening shareholder return policies, data showed Sunday. The shareholder interest-bolstering policies follows heightened scrutiny of corporate entities amid the widespread adoption of a stewardship code, a set of rules applied to firms that manage assets on behalf of institutional shareholders to engage in corporate governance which is in their interest. Korea's National Pension Service (NPS), the world's third-largest pension fund with about 700 trillion won ($586 billion) under management, said in guidelines adopted in 2019 that there would be consequences for firms that did not have a reasonable dividend policy or fail to follow existing policy. However, according to FN Guide, a financial data service provider, while Korea's 137 listed firms paid over 21.3 trillion won in dividends last year, this was 3.18 percent down from 2018.But this came as companies saw their combined net profit nearly halve to 58.5 trillion won, down 42 percent from 101.4 trillion won a year b

Feb 9, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Economy

Korea urged to slash corporate taxes

Higher taxes dampen firms' R&D investmentBy Lee Kyung-min Korea should lower corporate taxes to provide an impetus for the country's economic growth amid fast-deteriorating business conditions in the global market, experts said Friday. They stressed that the government should promptly revise its tax policies to favor businesses here, noting that a drop in corporate profits leads to slower-than-expected growth of Asia's export-reliant fourth-largest economy.Corporate taxes being much higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average is one of the key drawbacks for a country already beset by the drawn-out U.S.-China trade dispute among other global uncertainties. The OECD is a group of 36 economically well-off countries. Lee Kyung-geun“Korea is the odd one out,” Lee Kyung-geun, a senior tax attorney at Yulchon LLC said. “Most economies ― both advanced and developing ― have lowered and will continue to lower the rate to help their firms gain a competitive edge in the global market. Korea is the only one going backwards.”The

Feb 7, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Korea urged to slash corporate taxes
Banking & Finance

Hana financial urged to boost non-banking biz

Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-taiBy Lee Kyung-min Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai is being pressured to speed up strengthening the group's non-banking sector after 2019 corporate earnings laid bare the group's “disproportionate” reliance on Hana Bank.The group reported 2.4 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in net profit in 2019, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, and the largest since 2005 when the group was launched. Yet 89.5 percent of this came from Hana Bank whose net profit stood at 2.1 trillion won, up 3.4 percent from the year before. More drastic and tangible portfolio diversification planning is required to maintain growth momentum sparked by a successful business expansion in Vietnam and enhanced investment banking. Hana Bank's acquisition of a 15 percent stake in the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) translated into a 228 billion won profit. The momentum is also bolstered by investment banking which helped the group earn over 2.2 trillion won in fees, up 1.5 percent from 2018. Unless the group finds a way to strengthen its non

Feb 6, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Hana financial urged to boost non-banking biz
Economy

Gov't to eliminate red tape in AI, fintech, healthcare

gettyimagesbankBy Lee Kyung-min The government will set up a task force to remove outdated, unnecessary regulations in a move to foster technological innovation, it said Thursday.According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance Thursday, the task force will be launched next week to conduct a sweeping reform of 10 key industries that will spearhead the growth of Asia's fourth-largest economy.They are artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles and mobility, medical services, healthcare, biotechnology, fintech, manufacturing, new technology-oriented business model creation, travel, e-commerce and e-logistics. In AI, the taskforce will pursue deregulation in data sharing. It will also seek to lower entry barrier for the latecomers in the healthcare industry. The ministry said that the areas not only concern the budding, technology-driven industries but also the traditional manufacturing industries to help advance the much-needed long-overdue reform in the country.Presided over by First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Kim Yong-beom, the taskforce will be comprised of senior dire

Feb 6, 2020By Lee Kyung-min
Gov't to eliminate red tape in AI, fintech, healthcare
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