Business - The Korea Times

Ex-civil servant takes office as leader of insurance development institute

Korea Insurance Development Institute Chairman Heo Chang-eon delivers his inauguration speech at the institute's headquarters in Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of Korea Insurance Development InstituteBy Lee Min-hyungHeo Chang-eon, ex-civil servant at the Financial Supervisory Service, took office as the leader of the Korea Insurance Development Institute (KIDI) on a three-year tenure, Monday. He started his financial career at the Bank of Korea in 1987 and moved to the Financial Supervisory Service two years later. He spent most of his time there before ending his career as a former assistant deputy governor. His career also includes a period as the former chief of the Financial Security Institute. Until last year, Heo worked as an inspection commissioner at Shinhan Bank.The new leader of the institute is known to be close to President Yoon Suk-yeol, studying with him at Seoul National University.“The insurance industry faces a new paradigm amid multiple risk factors caused by internal and external changes in market circumstances,” Heo said in his inauguration address. “We

Nov 7, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

Ex-civil servant takes office as leader of insurance development institute

IBK, BNK set for year-end leadership reshuffle

Industrial Bank of Korea CEO Yoon Jong-won, left, and former BNK Financial Group Chairman Kim Ji-wan / YonhapMajor banking groups expected to focus on stability in year-end reshuffleBy Lee Min-hyungThe Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and BNK Financial Group are moving to reshuffle their top management. This will be the first major shakeup in the financial sector as the year-end organizational reform period draws closer. IBK CEO Yoon Jong-won ends his three-year tenure in January 2023. He has expressed his intention of stepping down from the post without extending his term.President Yoon Suk-yeol will appoint the next IBK chief, but it remains to be seen whether another external figure will be selected to lead the bank just as CEO Yoon has been doing for the past three years. Earlier, the union of the lender blocked the CEO's entry into its headquarters, expressing fierce opposition to the former Moon Jae-in administration's parachute appointment.The union has underscored the need to appoint the next IBK leader internally to ensure awareness of the state-run bank's structure and to avo

Nov 7, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

IBK, BNK set for year-end leadership reshuffle

Shinhan cooperates with Visa on data and global business

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, left, shake hands with Visa Chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly Jr. on Oct. 17 at the headquarters of Visa in San Francisco, U.S., after signing a strategic partnership on data and global business. Courtesy of Shinhan Financial GroupBy Anna J. ParkShinhan Financial Group and Visa have decided to join hands to cooperate in the area of data utilization and global business.According to the financial giant Sunday, Shihan Financial and Visa agreed to form strategic partnership on data and global business, as the two groups' leaders ― Shinhan Financial Group Cho Yong-byoung and Visa Chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly Jr. ― met in mid-October at the headquarters of Visa in San Francisco, U.S., to sign the partnership deal. With the partnership, Shinhan Financial plans to utilize Visa's global data in developing its new products and services. “Shinhan Financial Group is conducting product and service development and various marketing activities based on data information. We aim to achieve the two companies' mutual growth, as we cooperate on accumu

Nov 6, 2022By Anna J. Park

Shinhan cooperates with Visa on data and global business

Hana chairman pledges to capitalize on MSCI's trend outlook for ESG

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo, right, shakes hands with Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) CEO Henry Fernandez at the banking group's headquarters in Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of Hana Financial GroupBy Yi Whan-wooHana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo pledged to capitalize on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) trends as predicted by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), a global index provider, on its path to take a global lead on sustainable finance.In a meeting with MSCI CEO Henry Fernandez at Hana Financial Group headquarters in central Seoul, Saturday, Ham said the company will focus especially on expanding investment in green energy and other ESG-related projects in 2023.The meeting came as and Fernandez visited Seoul last week to attend a finance conference, and also to meet a range of finance leaders here to discuss how MSCI can enhance cooperation with the Korean financial industry.Ham was the only chairman from the nation's five largest banking groups to meet with Fernandez. The topics addressed between them centered on ri

Nov 6, 2022By Yi Whan-woo

Securities firms eye overseas markets amid stock market slump

A panoramic view of Korea's financial hub in Yeouido in Seoul / YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungLocal securities firms are moving to expand their footing overseas, in a desperate bid to make up for declining earnings in the domestic market, which has been experiencing continuing bearish sentiment. According to data from market tracker FnGuide, Korea's top six securities firms ― including Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities ― are forecast to have generated combined net profits of 941.5 billion won ($661 million) in the third quarter, down 52.9 percent from a year earlier when they chalked up more than 2.3 trillion won in total net profits.This decline was prompted by the U.S. Federal Reserve's unprecedented set of aggressive rate hikes throughout this year when it raised the near-zero benchmark rate to four percent. Hit hard by macroeconomic uncertainties overseas and a lackluster U.S. stock market, Korean shares also lost steam from last year's robust rally and the country's benchmark index ended up returning all the gains made during the pandemic.Securities firms took a serious beat

Nov 4, 2022By Lee Min-hyung

Securities firms eye overseas markets amid stock market slump

Challenges to corporate integrity heightened amid pandemic: report

gettyimagesbankBy Anna J. Park While most corporate leaders and professionals agree that corporate integrity is becoming ever more important, they also say the pandemic has made it harder to conduct business with integrity. According to the EY Global Integrity Report 2022, which conducted a survey on 4,762 corporate professionals from 54 countries, 97 percent of the respondents said corporate integrity is an important value in their company management. But 55 percent of the respondents believe that the standards of integrity have either stayed the same or worsened over the past 18 months.Particularly, many board members said one of the key obstacles hindering integrity-based management is the pandemic-led corporate environment. Forty-one percent of all respondents and over half ― 54 percent ― of board members said COVID-19 has made it more difficult to conduct business with integrity. The report said disruptions to global supply chains and increased digitalization have made corporations prioritize survival, while jettisoning non-essential activities that may include integrity agenda.

Nov 3, 2022By Anna J. Park

Challenges to corporate integrity heightened amid pandemic: report

FSS to conduct regular inspection on Mirae Asset Securities

The headquarters of Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) located on Yeouido, Seoul / YonhapBy Anna J. ParkThe Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will conduct a regular inspection on Mirae Asset Securities for the first time in four years. According to the financial industry Wednesday, the FSS recently sent an official document to the brokerage firm, asking for their cooperation. The inspection is slated to take place at the headquarters of the securities company in central Seoul later this month, following a preliminary two-week-long research investigation. The last time that the brokerage subsidiary of Mirae Asset Financial Group underwent the regular inspection by the FSS was 2018. Normally, the financial authority's inspection is conducted every three years, but it extended to four years this time due to special circumstances from the global pandemic.The FSS' investigation is expected to focus on the soundness of the firm's business deals related to real estate project financing (PF), considering increasing risks surrounding the global real estate PF market.Mirae Asset officials s

Nov 2, 2022By Anna J. Park

FSS to conduct regular inspection on Mirae Asset Securities

Koramco selected Asia sector leader by global ESG evaluator

The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) picked Koramco REITs Management and Trust as the Asia office sector leader in ESG efforts. Korea Times fileBy Yoon Ja-youngKoramco REITs Management and Trust was selected as the office sector leader in Asia according to a global environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) benchmark. According to the country's leading REIT asset management firm, Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) picked it as the top performer in Asia's office sector.GRESB is one of the leading ESG benchmarks for financial markets, collecting, validating, scoring and independently benchmarking ESG data to provide business intelligence, engagement tools and regulatory reporting solutions for investors, asset managers and the wider industry. It evaluates real estate assets and their management firms regarding how they affect the environment and society as well as their relations with other parties involved. This year, a total of 1,820 entities from 74 countries around the world had their real estate assets, worth $6.9 trillion, evaluated i

Nov 2, 2022

Koramco selected Asia sector leader by global ESG evaluator

Samsung Electronics picks Samjong KPMG as auditor

Samjong KPMG headquarters in southern Seoul / Courtesy of Samjong KPMGBy Anna J. ParkSamsung Electronics has selected Samjong KPMG as its external auditor for the next three fiscal years. It is the first time ever that the accounting firm has been selected as the external auditor of the nation's largest company by market cap. The announcement came as a surprise to the local accounting industry, as expectations were that Samsung Electronics would go back to Samil PwC, the largest accounting firm in Korea. Samil PwC had been auditing Samsung Electronics for over four decades since the 1970s until 2019.But a revision to the country's accounting-related law forced Samsung Electronics to sign Deloitte Anjin as its external auditor from the fiscal years of 2020 to 2022. The revision of the External Audit Act in 2019 states that corporations are obligated to appoint an external auditor that has been designated by the government for three-year terms, following a six-year cycle of free appointments of external auditors. As the three-year contract with Deloitte Anjin is about to end soon, the

Nov 1, 2022By Anna J. Park

Samsung Electronics picks Samjong KPMG as auditor

Top 5 financial groups to supply $67 bil. to stabilize market

Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun, fourth from left, stands next to chairmen of major financial groups in central Seoul, Tuesday. From left are, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu, Kim, Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) Chairman Kim Kwang-soo, Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo and NH Financial Group Chairman Son Byung-hwan. YonhapBy Anna J. ParkFive major financial groups here have decided to provide ample liquidity worth 95 trillion won ($67 billion) by the end of this year in a bid to ease a bond market crunch and stabilize local financial markets.During a meeting with Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Joo-hyun on Tuesday morning, the chairmen of the five groups pledged to inject a total of 73 trillion won into financial markets, while pooling another 12 trillion won into a bond market stabilization fund and another 10 trillion won for their group subsidiaries. They also vowed to refrain from issuing bank bonds, so that the local shor