Business - The Korea Times

KRX probing 2 foreign brokerages for improperly affecting stock prices

The Korea Exchange office on Yeouido, Seoul / Courtesy of Korea ExchangeKorea's bourse operator has launched a probe into two foreign brokerages on suspicions that they might have improperly affected stock prices through massive trading ahead of a global index rebalancing last year, market sources said Wednesday.The Korea Exchange (KRX) is looking into whether those firms ― Morgan Stanley and CLSA ― engaged in large-scale trading on some stocks and affected their closing prices in May last year before the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) rebalancing was announced.The MSCI rebalancing refers to a process of stocks added or removed from the index. It usually prompts sharp fluctuations on stocks affected.Sources said that the two brokerages were also suspected of failing to let their clients know about the trading in question.With regard to the probe, the Asia Securities Industry Financial Markets Association sent a letter to the KRX recently and denied all the charges. It is an independent and regional association that has global investment banks and other financial companie

Nov 23, 2022

KRX probing 2 foreign brokerages for improperly affecting stock prices

Regulator to recommend 6 financial firms to reimburse investment in troubled German fund

Protesters stage a rally in front of the headquarters of the Financial Supervisory Service in Seoul, demanding the regulator rescind sales contracts of the German heritage investment fund and order financial firms to reimburse customers, Nov. 14. YonhapKorea's financial regulator said Tuesday it will recommend six financial firms to rescind sales contracts on a German fund and reimburse customers, as they provided false information and caused them to make a "mistaken" investment decision.A dispute-arbitration meeting was held Monday to look into complaints with regard to the German Heritage derivative-linked securities and made the decision, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).The fund was designed to make a profit from buying and remodeling old buildings in Germany with cultural value.Six financial firms ― Shinhan Securities, NH Investment Securities, Hyundai Motor Securities, Hana Bank and Woori Bank ―- sold the fund product from April 2017 to December 2018 and pooled over 488.5 billion won ($358.9 million). The fund redemption, however, has been suspended since Ju

Nov 22, 2022

Regulator to recommend 6 financial firms to reimburse investment in troubled German fund

KB Kookmin Bank to release sports documentary

A screenshot from “Green Wolves,” a sports documentary released by KB Kookmin Bank, shows Asnawi Mangkualam Baharkb, an Indonesian player for the Ansan Greeners FC in the K League 2, in an interview. Courtesy of KB Kookmin BankBy Yoon Ja-youngKB Kookmin Bank is releasing documentary footage on a football team with which it has signed a promotion partnership. Titled “Green Wolves,” it focuses on the K League 2 team, the Ansan Greeners FC. It is scheduled to tell the history of the Ansan Greeners FC, a football club for local residents, as well as training for the athletes who aim to make it into the higher K League. The bank announced in a press release that it wants to spread a message of hope through realistic depictions of athletes who never stop tackling the challenges they face.The documentary is especially focused on Asnawi Mangkualam Bahar, who is the first Indonesian professional footballer to play professionally for a Korean team. He is also the captain of the Indonesia national team. The documentary tells the behind story of how Asnawi came to join th

Nov 21, 2022By Yoon Ja-young

KB Kookmin Bank to release sports documentary

Hana, SK join hands to strengthen digital innovation

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo, center in the front row, and SK Telecom President and CEO Ryu Young-sang, fourth from left in the front row, pose with executives of both companies during a ceremony to mark a joint partnership at the banking group's headquarters in central Seoul, Friday. The partnership is also joined by SK Square, an investment arm of SK Group. Courtesy of Hana Financial GroupWeb 3.0, job creation, shared business model are among areas of focusBy Yi Whan-wooHana Financial Group, jointly with SK Telecom and SK Square, have formed a strategic partnership to combine their expertise in finance and information and communications technology (ICT) to take lead together in innovative financial services using digital technology, the banking group announced on Sunday. It said the three will jointly invest in Web 3.0, the third generation of the World Wide Web aimed at a decentralized and secure internet that allows users to directly interact and create digital content by using blockchain technology and advanced artificial intelligence (AI).Web 3.0 will be an impro

Nov 20, 2022By Yi Whan-woo

Hana, SK join hands to strengthen digital innovation

Suhyup Bank's first-ever female leader takes office

Suhyup Bank CEO Kang Shin-sook, left, poses during an inauguration ceremony held at its headquarters in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyungSuhyup Bank's first female CEO, Kang Shin-sook, took office as the new leader of the fisheries cooperative's banking arm, Friday.She presented five core management goals after being inaugurated to the position. They include stable revenue generation, preemptive risk management, agile digital transformation, future-oriented organizational reform and enhanced support of fishermen.“Suhyup Bank is faced with a tough situation where it has to generate stable revenues amid a recession and steep rate hikes and regain its identity as a bank for cooperatives,” she said in her inaugural speech. “I will candidly communicate with employees and listen to voices from the market, while at the same time respecting the labor union as a partner for co-prosperity to build a future-oriented labor-management relationship.”Following the speech, she

Nov 18, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

Suhyup Bank's first-ever female leader takes office

Regulator to start buying PF-ABCPs next week to ease credit crunch woes

An entrance to Legoland Korea Resort in Chuncheon, east of Seoul, Nov. 15. YonhapKorea's financial regulator said Friday it will start buying project-financing asset-backed commercial papers (PF-ABCPs) next week as part of efforts to prop up the country's short-term money market and ease worries over a credit crunch.Buying brokerages-guaranteed PF-ABCPs will start in the middle of next week through a special purpose company to be established Friday, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC). An ABCP refers to short-term lending backed by such assets as land and buildings to be constructed. It is widely used for construction and development projects.The planned CP purchase is aimed at injecting liquidity into the short-term money market roiled by a recent default on a municipal-backed debt raised for the construction of the Legoland theme park in the eastern province of Gangwon.Last week, the FSC announced it will inject over 2.8 trillion won (US$2.1 billion) to support the PF-ABCP market through CP-buying schemes. The regulator said it also plans to buy PF-ABCPs guaranteed

Nov 18, 2022

Regulator to start buying PF-ABCPs next week to ease credit crunch woes

K bank's reliability called into question over system error

K bank headquarters in Seoul / YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungK bank is facing questions from customers about its reliability after its service was unavailable for around seven hours from Thursday afternoon due to a server storage problem. The internet-only lender restarted its mobile app's service from around 4 a.m. Friday. But users stepped up criticism of the company because it failed to give any specific notice or update about the disruption once its service had been resumed.Upbit users were also hit by the latest incident, as they could not send or receive Korean won during the service outage. K bank is the only affiliated lender for the nation's largest cryptocurrency exchange, so the breakdown in operations blocked Upbit customers from making any transactions with the local currency.The negative sentiment of K bank customers reached a peak overnight because the incident erupted at a critical time when a group of big financial players here and abroad displayed unstable signals over their service management. Last week, the abrupt bankruptcy of the once-popular global crypto exchange, FTX

Nov 18, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

K bank's reliability called into question over system error

Banks log record interest income through Sept. on rising rates

A woman walks past signs about a bank's loan programs at a lender in Seoul, Nov. 16. YonhapBanks in Korea earned record net interest income in the first three quarters of the year, helped by sharp rate hikes by the central bank, data showed Thursday. Their interest revenue in the January-September period stood at a combined 40.6 trillion won ($30.3 billion), up 6.9 trillion won from a year ago, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).Their soaring interest income came as the Bank of Korea has raised its policy rate to combat rising inflation.The BOK has hiked its key policy rate eight times by a combined 2.5 percentage points since August last year to tame the rising inflation, which prodded local banks to raise lending rates.Their combined net profit, however, declined in the first nine months of the year as state-run lenders suffered a decline in their net profits while commercial lenders racked up a record high.Their combined net profit reached 15 trillion won in the first nine months of the year, with commercial banks logging 10.5 trillion won in

Nov 17, 2022

Banks log record interest income through Sept. on rising rates

KB Kookmin Bank wins science ministry award for AI-based banking services

Exterior view of KB Kookmin Bank in Yeouido, Seoul / Korea Times fileBy Yi Whan-wooKB Kookmin Bank has won an award from Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho for offering innovative banking services using up-to-date technology, the lender announced on Thursday. The award was presented during an annual ceremony co-hosted by the Korea IT Service Industry Association and Korea Society of IT Services this week to honor individuals and entities that have contributed to the improvement of the IT service sector in Korea.KB Kookmin Bank has capitalized on artificial intelligence (AI) to pioneer its digital banking services.Accordingly, it set up a research center focusing on AI-based finance and developed a wide range of services. Among them was optical character recognition (OCR), a technology that automatically converts an image of text or characters into a machine-readable text format.“We'll continue to make efforts to provide leading banking services using AI and innovate in the financial market,” the lender said in a press release.

Nov 17, 2022By Yi Whan-woo

KB Kookmin Bank wins science ministry award for AI-based banking services

Impending divorce of 5th-richest man in Korea draws speculation over asset division

Smilegate founder and chief visionary officer (CVO) Kwon Hyuk-bin, center, sits during the closing ceremony of WCG 2019 Xi'an in China back in July 2019. Courtesy of WCGSmilegate founder's divorce to be highest wealth split case ever in Korea By Anna J. ParkAs Smilegate founder and Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) Kwon Hyuk-bin appears to be facing an imminent divorce with his wife, Lee Hwa-jin, media attention is already focusing on the couple's potential asset division, which is expected to be the highest amount ever seen in the country. According to industry insiders earlier this week, the Seoul Family Court recently granted an injunction filed by Kwon's wife, prohibiting him from selling off his owned shares. Such an injunction is typically seen as a move preceding an upcoming divorce suit that includes a large-scale property and asset division. Both parties are said to be preparing divorce lawsuits with various law firms.Although the real divorce lawsuit reportedly hasn't yet been filed by either spouse, the media hype has already been piling up over how Kwon's mega wealth will be

Nov 16, 2022By Anna J. Park

Banking & Finance