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Lee Kyung-min

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Economy

High-net-worth customers at banks surge amid popularity of wealth management

The combined assets held by high net worth customers deposited with the country’s four leading commercial lenders — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana and Woori — have reached 180 trillion won ($130 billion), market watchers said Wednesday. The development is explained by the surging popularity of private banking services provided by the lenders. According to financial market data, the assets came to 179.36 trillion won as of the end of March, up more than 4 trillion won from the end of 2024. The figure is a further jump from 155.2 trillion won in 2022 and 165.3 trillion won in 2023. As of March, more than 72,600 customers had at least 1 billion won in assets deposited with the four banks, up 2,082 from three months earlier. Their assets averaged 2.47 billion won, and more than 1,620 customers had over 10 billion won deposited. Many were able to augment their asset value because of ultra low interest rates and ample liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Startup founders generated handsome profits from initial public offerings, and young people who made significant investments in stocks and c

Jul 23, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
High-net-worth customers at banks surge amid popularity of wealth management
Economy

Banks recruit retirees to capitalize on their expertise at cheaper costs

Commercial lenders are rushing to rehire retired employees, prompted by widespread non-face-to-face services where decades of experience by highly trained retirees can speed up the process, market watchers said Sunday. These roles include anti-money laundering (AML), group loan consultations, financial fraud response and remote household loan screening. KB Kookmin Bank has posted job openings this month. Eligible applicants are those who retired from the bank after June 2015. They will work eight hours per day, five days a week. The contract will have to be renewed every year. This rehiring is a great way to save labor costs, given the salaries in the banking industry. Banks pay slightly more than the state-set minimum wage — currently about 2.1 million won ($1,500) per month. For example, AML work will pay 85,600 won per day, amounting to 2.57 million won per month. Group loan consultation work will pay 102,400 won per day, adding up to a monthly total of 3.07 million won. Woori Bank plans to post a similar job opening next week. Others have rehired retired employees to extend and screen l

Jul 20, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Banks recruit retirees to capitalize on their expertise at cheaper costs
Economy

Financial firms rush to woo customers as cash handouts begin Monday

All citizens in Korea will be eligible to receive voucher-based cash handouts starting Monday as part of a 12 trillion won ($8.7 billion) stimulus plan under the Lee Jae Myung administration. The vouchers can be used via credit and debit cards, gift certificates and prepaid cards. Commercial lenders, fintech companies, internet-only banks and credit card firms are rolling out aggressive marketing strategies to attract users. The country’s five top banks — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup — will accept applications for the vouchers at their branches nationwide. Shinhan, Woori and NH NongHyup will offer application services via their banking apps. The country’s three internet-only banks — KakaoBank, Kbank and Toss Bank — will accept applications online. After reviewing the applications, a coupon amount will be credited to the user’s debit card account the following day. Only users that have a debit card in their own name will be eligible. Similarly, applications can be filed with nine credit card issuers: Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Hana, Woori,

Jul 20, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Financial firms rush to woo customers as cash handouts begin Monday
Economy

SGI scrambles to recover from ransomware attack

Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI) plans to operate an around-the-clock response center and compensate all losses from a recent ransomware attack, the company said Wednesday. The measures are the latest development in the fallout from Monday’s cyberattack that caused system disruptions and database suspension failures, including guarantee certificates issuance. Also denied were consultations for SGI-mediated jeonse loans extended by commercial lenders. Unique to Korea, jeonse is a home-renting system where tenants pay a lump sum refundable deposit in lieu of monthly rent. The company said it will have the loans extended and the guarantees applied later, adding that its post-loan services are and will be fully available. “We will run the center until no reports are filed,” the SGI said. The center opened at 9 a.m. Wednesday to begin receiving reports on damages caused by the system failure. Damages will be fully paid once claims are reviewed to match and verify facts. Guarantee papers needed for court proceedings and biddings that require immediate issuance by small businesses and individu

Jul 16, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
SGI scrambles to recover from ransomware attack
Economy

Targeted assistance for low-income earners to bolster inclusive, sustainable growth: economist

Education, health care and social protection spending should be bolstered for low-income groups, a critical step toward promoting inclusive growth, an economist from Sweden said Wednesday. According to Gazi Salah Uddin of Linköping University, increasing government spending in those areas will help slow down worsening global income inequality. “It is important to increase spending to make sure low-income groups are the primary beneficiaries,” Uddin said during a conference hosted by Bank of Korea (BOK). It was jointly held by the Asia Development Bank and the Journal of International Money and Finance. The economist said increased government spending in those areas leads to a lower Gini coefficient the following year. The Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of income or wealth inequality within a population, ranging from 0 to 1. The figure 0 indicates perfect equality and 1 represents perfect inequality. “Both high- and low-income groups benefit from the government benefit — the former mostly from a rise in wages or asset values. However, resources over time are redistribute

Jul 16, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Targeted assistance for low-income earners to bolster inclusive, sustainable growth: economist
Economy

Heads of financial groups reap handsome gains from share buybacks

Heads and executives of financial groups have netted handsome profits from share buybacks, buoyed by the rally of company shares over the past few months, market watchers said Tuesday. Corporate leaders buy back outstanding shares from the open market to show their commitment to responsible management, alongside enhanced shareholder return policies. Shares of the country’s four leading financial groups have jumped at least 50 percent in value this year. According to financial industry data, Shinhan, Hana and Woori shares hit record highs Monday on Nextrade (NXT) closing prices. NXT offers lower trading fees than those of the Korea Exchange (KRX), the country’s stock bourse operator. The four shares reported year-to-date returns of about 60 percent this year. KB has increased 43.1 percent, while Shinhan rose 51.1 percent. Hana surged by more than 69.4 percent and Woori by 74 percent. This led to significant increases in the executives' company stock values. Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo had the biggest increase in stock value. The value of his 15,132 shares surged to 1.4 bil

Jul 15, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Heads of financial groups reap handsome gains from share buybacks
Economy

Will Lee introduce stern penalties to prevent irregularities at banks?

Expectations are growing over whether President Lee Jae Myung will introduce stern penalties to eradicate employee misconduct, including embezzlement, poorly screened loans and fraud, at banks and other financial institutions, market watchers said Tuesday. The most widely discussed measure is "one strike, you're out" rule, a zero-tolerance policy for stock manipulation to be enforced by Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Korea Exchange. The three said last week that a joint response team will be established to investigate and monitor irregularities related to stock price manipulation. The team will also delist poorly managed and fraudulent companies. The policy will be applied to illegal short selling practices and false financial data disclosures, a significant step in stricter oversight promoting market fairness. “The capital market is coming under strengthened oversight, and so should the banks,” an industry official said on condition of anonymity. “Employee embezzlement, poorly screened loans and fraud continue to happen every so oft

Jul 15, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Will Lee introduce stern penalties to prevent irregularities at banks?
Economy

More high-earning YouTubers face audits for tax evasion

A growing number of high-earning YouTubers are coming under audits for tax evasion, fueled by the popularity of online content featuring viral dances and cyber wreckers who sensationalize celebrity news stories for profit, according to industry officials on Monday. Many of them deliberately failed to report taxes despite generating revenues of hundreds of millions of won a year, an issue regularly brought to the fore at the National Assembly. “An acquaintance of mine said he received a call from the tax authorities, asking to file a report stating his YouTube activities in detail and annual income from the online content,” an industry official said on condition of anonymity. “Apparently, donations from viewers are subject to tax, which many of the online content generators are not aware of. He doesn't know how much will be determined as taxable income, but is afraid the amount would be overwhelming," the official said. This is one example of many cases of tax evasion investigations, according to the National Tax Service (NTS). The agency said it conducted tax audits on 21 YouTubers

Jul 14, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
More high-earning YouTubers face audits for tax evasion
Economy

KB Financial chief stresses using AI to bolster corporate value

KB Financial Group Chairman Yang Jong-hee stressed the need to use artificial intelligence (AI) to bolster corporate values and turn what may appear to be a crisis into a new opportunity, the group said Monday. Fundamental structural changes are central to the drive, particularly in areas encompassing customer-centric business practices. The goal is to meet the growing needs of the customers in tailored high-tech products and services developments. Yang said the group and its affiliates should embrace a deeper customer-centric philosophy, rooted in the fundamentals of finance, qualities basic to maintaining expertise in the AI era. KB said the new corporate strategy was outlined during the chair’s remarks at a workshop held from July 11 to 12 at a KB Insurance training center in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province. About 270 executives from KB units attended the workshop. The strategies had four key agenda items: customers, efficiency, AI and inclusion. The attendees shared opinions and developed a group-wide strategy for expanding key emerging customer groups, including seniors. As for t

Jul 14, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
KB Financial chief stresses using AI to bolster corporate value
Economy

Will foreign buying continue to power KOSPI rally?

The growth of Korea's stock market capitalization above 3,000 trillion won ($2.1 trillion) is expected to continue, buoyed by strong foreign buying, market watchers said Friday. Fueling the optimism is President Lee Jae Myung’s pro-market drive including the push for a "KOSPI 5,000 era." According to Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) data, foreign investors net purchased over 3 trillion won in Korean equities in June, higher than the net purchase of 2.01 trillion won in May. The two months of consecutive inflow is a significant turnaround from the previous nine months leading up to April, when foreign investors sold off nearly 3.9 trillion won in Korean stocks. Observers see the reversal as a signal foreign capital is returning to the Korean market. The foreign selloff began late last year, after then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump emerged as the election frontrunner, fanning fears that Korea could be caught in the crossfire between the U.S. and China if Trump were to win the presidency. The selloff gained further momentum in December last year after former President Yoon Su

Jul 11, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Will foreign buying continue to power KOSPI rally?
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