Business - The Korea Times

Promoting green new deal fund

NongHyup Bank CEO Kwon Jun-hak, left, poses with NH-Amundi Asset Management CEO Park Hak-joo after registering to the latter's HANARO Carbon Efficient Green New Deal exchange traded fund (ETF), Friday. The ETF invests in companies planning to reduce their carbon emissions and pursue environmental, social and corporate governance values. Courtesy of NongHyup Bank

Mar 7, 2021By Nam Hyun-woo

Woori privatization plan losing momentum

Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung delivers a speech during the group's management strategy meeting at its headquarters in Seoul on Jan. 17. YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungWoori Financial Group's planned privatization has hit another snag after its recent decision to reduce dividend payouts.Last year, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) was supposed to start selling part of the government's 17.25-percent stake in the financial holding firm aiming to achieve Woori's 100-percent privatization by the end of 2022.But the state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, which holds ownership of Woori with the stake, did not sell any of it last year, as Woori's stock price failed to bounce back to levels that met the government's expectations due to the coronavirus outbreak. The corporation's earlier plan was to start selling Woori shares sometime in the first half of 2020, but it ended up retracting the plan amid Woori's dismal stock performance.It appears unlikely that the corporation will be able to take the step on time this year amid widening uncertainties over the future course of

Mar 7, 2021By Lee Min-hyung

Woori privatization plan losing momentum

SC to follow Citi's decision to reduce dividends

From left are Standard Chartered Bank Korea CEO Park Jong-bok and Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon. YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungForeign banks here are expected to abide by the Financial Services Commission's (FSC) guideline to cut their dividends after Citibank Korea decided to lower its 2020 payout ratio to 20 percent.The decision made headlines as overseas lenders have been relatively less conscious compared to domestic financial firms of pressure from Korea's regulators. But Citibank Korea accepted the request from the FSC this time as the lender suffered worsening profitability here. Citibank Korea reported 161 billion won ($143.5 million) in net profit during the first nine months of last year, down 38 percent from the same period of 2019.This has raised the chances of other overseas banks ― such as Standard Chartered (SC) Bank Korea ― following in Citibank Korea's footsteps. SC Bank Korea also failed to impress in its 2020 earnings. The lender chalked up 182.9 billion won in net profit during the same period, down 28.1 percent, hit hard by the economic impact caused by the COVID-19

Mar 3, 2021By Lee Min-hyung

SC to follow Citi's decision to reduce dividends

Woori to inject 43 trillion won for Korean New Deal

Woori Financial Group headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of Woori Financial GroupBy Park Jae-hyukWoori Financial Group will inject an additional 43 trillion won ($38 billion) for Korean New Deal projects and innovative financing by the end of 2025, the banking group said Monday.The decision was made after Woori Chairman Son Tae-seung hosted a meeting of the committee in support of the Korean New Deal, Friday, to assess the group's efforts to support the government-led development strategy aimed at overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and transforming the nation's industrial structure.Last August, the group organized the committee comprised of representatives from its affiliates to devise medium- and long-term plans to support the project. The committee agreed in the latest meeting to accelerate its ongoing efforts.“We will lead the Korean New Deal and seek promising businesses to support,” the chairman said. “I hope the entire group pushes ahead with supporting the Korean New Deal and innovative financing to take this opportunity to create synergy effects and satisfy envi

Mar 1, 2021By Park Jae-hyuk

Woori to inject 43 trillion won for Korean New Deal

Loan interest rates rise sharply

GettyimagesbankBy Anna J. ParkWhether they're credit loans or mortgages, the nation's retail loan interest rates are rising sharply, posing an increasing burden on people who borrowed money from financial institutions.Interest rates on credit loans extended by four major local banks ― KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana and Woori ― currently range between 2.59 percent and 3.65 percent a year for customers with the best credit ratings. This is up around 0.6 percentage points from last July when interest rates were as low as 1.99 percent for customers with the best credit ratings. Such low interest rates were possible last year, as the Bank of Korea (BOK) lowered the key interest rate to a historic low of 0.5 percent amid the global pandemic shock. However, the tide is obviously changing.The nation's mortgage interest rates are also rising, as the four major banks' lowest annual rate increased by 0.09 percentage points to 2.34 percent as of the end of last week, from 2.25 percent last July. One of the main reasons behind the rising interest rates is a sharp jump in bond rates. Due to expectation

Mar 1, 2021By Anna J. Park

Hyundai Card CEO hints at designating digital expert as successor

Hyundai Card Vice Chairman and CEO Chung Tae-young speaks during the Da Vinci Motel event at Hyundai Card Space in Seoul in this 2019 file photo. Courtesy of Hyundai Card By Park Jae-hyukHyundai Card Vice Chairman and CEO Chung Tae-young implied that he may one day hand over leadership of the company to a digital expert who may have no financial industry experience.“If financial firms should only be led by financial experts, tech firms by engineers, press by journalists, universities by professors and fashion companies by designers, are these the right principles in this era of innovation where boundaries are disappearing?” he wrote on Facebook, Saturday.“I've always felt uncomfortable with the word expert. Such individuals have a good understanding of their fields, but are not related to things like designing the future. Elon Musk was not a car expert, and Jeff Bezos was not a retail expert.”His remarks came in response to the credit card unit of Hyundai Motor Grou

Mar 1, 2021By Park Jae-hyuk

Hyundai Card CEO hints at designating digital expert as successor

Samsung's insurance arms offer industry-leading dividends in 2020

The entrance of Samsung Life Insurance's headquarters / Courtesy of Samsung Life InsuranceBy Lee Min-hyungSamsung Group's two insurance affiliates offered the highest dividends last year in the domestic insurance industry despite a slight cut in the total returns offered amid pressure from watchdogs, data showed Friday.The nation's major life and non-life insurers were expected to scale up their dividends on robust earnings in 2020 by cashing in on the nationwide pandemic fallout.But they had to reduce their dividend payout ratios after financial authorities urged them to step up risk management and maintain financial soundness on lingering coronavirus-related uncertainties.Abiding by the call, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, the two insurance arms of Samsung, cut their dividend payout ratios and offered combined dividends worth 823 billion won ($733.2 million), down 1.7 percent from the previous year, according to data by corporate tracker CEO Score.But they maintained their titles as insurance stocks offering the biggest dividends last year due to th

Feb 26, 2021By Lee Min-hyung

Samsung's insurance arms offer industry-leading dividends in 2020

Elon Musk's bitcoin support boosting K bank

K bank headquarters in Seoul / YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungK bank is enjoying the benefits from its partnership with Upbit, a Seoul-based digital currency exchange, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his interest in Dogecoin. Upbit is the only exchange here trading the meme-based cryptocurrency. The internet-only lender resumed its business in July 2020 after suffering years of capital erosion. The bank has since engaged in a series of aggressive marketing activities to regain the spotlight as the nation's first mobile bank.Until recently, market watchers said the lender's identity looked vague despite such efforts, with some sharing skepticism over its sustainability. Kakao Bank, a dominant leader in the market, has also been posing a threat to K bank's business expansion here. Major revenue streams overlap between the two banks. Kakao Bank secured more than 13.6 million customers, while K bank falls far short of that figure as of the end of 2020.But K bank has been drawing unprecedented attention lately from investors and customers here by attracting more than 1 million customers in onl

Feb 26, 2021By Lee Min-hyung

Elon Musk's bitcoin support boosting K bank

Hana chairman may replace bank CEO

Hana Bank Vice President Park Sung-ho speaks during the National Assembly's annual audit in Seoul, Oct. 13. YonhapBy Lee Min-hyungHana Bank Vice President Park Sung-ho may be promoted to become the lender's next leader, replacing incumbent chief Ji Sung-kyoo whose term ends in March.The prediction came after Hana Financial Group's CEO recommendation committee has “de facto” decided to extend the tenure of its chairman, Kim Jung-tai, for another year.Park placed his name on a list of candidates for the group's next chairmanship along with Kim. This attracted the attention of many in the industry, as Ji was not included. The financial industry here typically recommends an incumbent bank head to become its holding firm's next leader.Ji was widely expected to have his term extended thanks to his contributions to the banking group's stable earnings. But after the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) slapped him with a warning-level sanction surrounding the lender's involvement in the mis-selling of derivative-linked fund products, the group excluded him from the candidate list

Feb 25, 2021By Lee Min-hyung

MBK Partners, Kakao eyeing controlling stake in eBay Korea

EBay headquarters in San Jose, California / EPA-YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunPrivate equity fund (PEF) MBK Partners and local internet firm Kakao Corp. are tapped as two of the most viable candidates to possibly acquire eBay Korea, the country's No.2 e-commerce company that went up for sale last month. According to a source from the investment banking industry, eBay Korea's financial advisers ― Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs ― have been distributing teaser letters to potential buyers. Soon, they will meet with shortlisted candidates to sign non-disclosure agreements and share details about the company. It has not been revealed how much eBay Korea's corporate value stands at currently, but it is estimated at around 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion). Kakao could have its e-commerce subsidiary Kakao Commerce acquire a controlling stake in eBay Korea. Kakao Commerce's main business is e-coupons used through the instant message application Kakao Talk. Last year, Kakao Commerce's gross merchandise value (GMV) stood at 3 trillion won and annual sales reached 300 billion won. The items traded on the K

Feb 24, 2021By Kim Jae-heun

Banking & Finance