Society
PHOTOS First snowfall arrives heavier than expected across Korea
People walk along snowy streets in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Newsis
Dec 4, 2025photo
![[PHOTOS] First snowfall arrives heavier than expected across Korea](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Lee Yeon-woo
Korea Times Finance Reporter
Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
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Banking & Finance
Shinhan Financial Group nominates Jin Ok-dong for another term as chairman
Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jin Ok-dong has effectively secured a second term after the recommendation committee selected him as the sole final candidate for the chairmanship, the company said Thursday. Jin earned high marks not only for delivering exceptional financial results over the past three years, but also for playing an active role in strengthening the group's long-term competitiveness. He is expected to be formally appointed following approval at the regular shareholders' meeting and board session in March, once his current term concludes. His new term will last three years. "Leveraging the experience and expertise he gained as CEO of Shinhan Bank and chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, Jin was viewed as possessing the strategic insight, organizational leadership and integrity required of a chairman," the committee said. "The members of the committee gave high marks for advancing the group's digital and global businesses to strengthen future competitiveness, raising corporate value through the Shinhan Value-up Project, and reinforcing disciplined management by establishing
Dec 4, 2025
Others
KOSPI 5,000 Special Committee wins top honor at Korea Corporate Governance Awards
The KOSPI 5,000 Special Committee has been named the Grand Prize winner of the fourth Korea Corporate Governance Awards, the Korean Corporate Governance Forum (KCGF) announced Wednesday. Rep. Oh Gi-hyoung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who chairs the committee, accepted the award at a ceremony held at the Federation of Korean Industries headquarters in Seoul. KCGF recognized the committee's efforts to spearhead legislative reforms that contributed to the benchmark KOSPI posting the highest growth among major global stock markets this year. In July, the first amendment to the Commercial Act was passed, introducing a fiduciary duty for directors toward shareholders. This was followed in August by a second amendment mandating cumulative voting for listed companies with assets exceeding 2 trillion won ($1.36 billion). A third amendment, which will require companies to cancel treasury shares within one year of repurchase, is expected to pass before the end of the year. Innovator Awards were also presented to individuals and organizations in five categories: APR CEO Kim Byung-hoon (b
Dec 4, 2025
Companies
Coupang's market dominance remains unshaken after data breach: analysts
Coupang's massive data breach is expected to have only a limited impact on the number of customers leaving the platform, due to the company's dominant position and differentiated services, analysts said Wednesday. The breach, which exposed the personal information of 33.7 million users, is the largest in Korean history. It reportedly occurred five months ago due to a former employee, but remained undetected until recently. Coupang shares dropped 5.36 percent on Monday (local time) following reports of the breach over the weekend. The stock, however, rebounded slightly on Tuesday, rising 0.23 percent to close at $26.71 in New York trading. Despite the negative headlines, Coupang's domestic rivals saw modest gains or remained largely unaffected. From Monday to Wednesday, Naver shares climbed 1.44 percent to 246,500 won ($167.85). Naver operates e-commerce platforms, including Naver Store and Naver Pay. Emart and Lotte Shopping also advanced 4 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively, while the benchmark KOSPI index added 2.96 percent. Coupang controlled 22.7 percent of Korea's e-commerce marke
Dec 3, 2025
Banking & Finance
KakaoBank awarded presidential commendation for anti-money laundering innovation
KakaoBank said Tuesday that it has been recognized as an outstanding institution in anti-money laundering (AML), and received a presidential commendation at the 19th Anti-Money Laundering Day ceremony hosted by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The ceremony was held on Friday at the Korea Federation of Banks headquarters in Seoul. Anti-Money Laundering Day is an annual event hosted by the FIU since 2007 to promote transparency in financial transactions. The ceremony honors institutions and individuals who have contributed to strengthening and advancing AML systems. In this year's assessment, KakaoBank was recognized for building an AML framework optimized for a non-face-to-face financial environment and for leveraging data technologies to more precisely mitigate money laundering risks. Key achievements included advancing systems based on "RegTech" — technology designed to help financial institutions comply more efficiently and accurately with regulations. These included improving the accuracy of non-face-to-face customer verification by actively using public MyData (Korea's data-sh
Dec 2, 2025
Economy
Is Korea's excess liquidity main culprit behind weakening won?
Korea's money supply is expanding at its fastest pace in years, intensifying a debate over whether excess liquidity is the real culprit behind the won's prolonged weakness, industry officials said Tuesday. According to data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), M2 — a broad gauge of funds circulating in the economy — rose 8.5 percent in September from a year earlier, pushing the total to a record 4,430 trillion won ($3.02 trillion). The gain, sustained for six straight months, is nearly double the U.S. rate of 4.5 percent. While the government has attributed the won's slide partly to a spike in overseas investments by individuals, critics argue that expansionary fiscal policy and abundant liquidity are the primary drivers. "The exchange rate is where it is because Korea expanded M2 far too aggressively, because the economy isn't growing, and because dollars are being reinvested in the U.S. instead of in Korea," wrote a finance content creator on Threads, gaining traction among younger investors. "Gov. Rhee's latest remarks are truly shocking." The post cited BOK Gov. Rhee Chang-yong's Nov. 2
Dec 2, 2025
Economy
Growth cools, debt rises: Global economy faces fresh risks in 2026
The world economy is entering a "new normal" of medium-to-low growth as it nears 2026, with performance set to slow across most major economies except the U.S., experts said Monday. Korea, heavily reliant on exports, is also expected to lose momentum as tariff pass-through accelerates and structural drags deepen. The World Trade Organization expects global trade growth to fall from 3 percent in 2025 to just 1.5 percent in 2026. The Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF) held a seminar on Monday to forecast the global economic and financial outlook for 2026, where it raised such concerns. "Heightened geopolitical risks and growing political-economic polarization are likely to further increase uncertainty," said KCIF President Lee Yong-jae. "With some tariff pressures stabilizing, rising semiconductor capital investment at home and abroad — together with continued progress on inflation control — is expected to help anchor global growth at a moderate pace of around 3 percent." As growth slows, governments are likely to lean more on expansionary spending as their main policy lever
Dec 1, 2025
Banking & Finance
Gender pay gap persists at brokerages as women earn 66% of men's pay
Female employees in the securities industry earned only about 66 percent of what their male counterparts made, data showed Sunday, though the gap has narrowed slightly in recent years. According to reports disclosed by the Financial Supervisory Service, the average first-half salary per employee at Korea's top 10 securities firms was 103.5 million won ($70,408). Meritz Securities topped the list with an average of 131.4 million won, followed by Korea Investment & Securities at 129 million won and Daishin Securities at 121 million won. However, women, who make up 43.6 percent of all employees, continued to earn significantly less than men. The average first-half salary for female employees was 80.1 million won, just 66.4 percent of the 120.7 million won earned by their male counterparts. At Meritz Securities, where the average pay was the highest, the gender gap was even wider. Female employees earned only 51.5 percent of what male employees made, with an average salary of 77.28 million won. Despite this, women at the firm had longer average tenures — 7.4 years compared to 6.2 years for
Nov 30, 2025
Tech & Science
What challenges lie ahead after Naver's acquisition of Dunamu?
Naver’s decision to acquire crypto giant Dunamu through its fintech arm Naver Financial marks an unprecedented convergence of Big Tech and virtual assets. But the deal, announced last week, faces significant hurdles, including shareholder approval and lingering regulatory uncertainty, industry officials said Sunday. Naver Financial said Wednesday it plans to acquire Dunamu as a wholly owned subsidiary through a stock swap deal, offering 2.54 shares of Naver Financial for each Dunamu share. Executives say the aim is to build a global infrastructure that spans payments, finance and everyday services based on artificial intelligence and Web3. To complete the stock swap, slated for June 30 next year, the two companies must pass a special shareholder resolution scheduled for May 22 in that year. Approval requires participation from at least one-third of all issued shares and a two-thirds majority of those in attendance. While Naver Financial is effectively under Naver's control, Dunamu must secure additional shareholder support beyond the 41.7 percent of its shares held by management, incl
Nov 30, 2025
Banking & Finance
Hanwha Life launches AI multilingual learning tool for foreign insurance planners
Hanwha Life said Thursday that it has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) translation assistant designed to help foreign financial planners prepare for certification exams. The assistant is the first AI-powered learning support tool in the industry. It provides learning videos in Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese, along with multilingual practice questions and mock exams. As all features are mobile-based, foreign financial planners can study anytime, anywhere with ease. For example, videos originally available only in Korean are now dubbed in Chinese or Vietnamese using the AI assistant. AI-generated explanations help users understand concepts and terms in their native language when solving practice questions, and an automatic wrong-answer review feature helps them focus on areas needing improvement. Hanwha Life currently employs more than 1,600 foreign financial planners, with the majority from China (1,498) and Vietnam (71). The company said the service was introduced to meet the growing demand for a multilingual training environment and enhance access to learning. "The AI translatio
Nov 27, 2025