Business - The Korea Times

Standard Chartered Bank Korea runs special promotion

A model promotes Standard Chartered Bank Korea's special bank account. Courtesy of Standard Chartered Bank KoreaBy Lee Min-hyungStandard Chartered (SC) Bank Korea is running a special promotion by offering a gift certificate worth up to 2 million won ($1,600) for those who sign a new bank account and keep a certain amount of money deposited for three to six months, the lender said Thursday. To join the event, customers need to sign up for the “SC Cheil My Zoom Account” no later than May 29, and have to maintain their deposits for at least three months.Those who keep 50 million won on average for three months in their account will receive a mobile gift certificate worth 50,000 won. The more money in the account, the higher the reward they will receive from the lender.If a customer maintains a 1 billion won balance in his or her account for six consecutive months, the lender will offer the maximum reward of a gift certificate worth 2 million won.“We want customers not to lose the opportunity to sign up for the event through which they can enjoy high interest rates and

Apr 23, 2020

Standard Chartered Bank Korea runs special promotion

KB Financial beset by Prudential takeover

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, and the Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea headquarters in Seoul / Korea Times fileBy Park Jae-hyukKB Financial Group is facing an intensifying protest over its decision to acquire Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea for 2.3 trillion won ($1.8 billion), according to industry officials, Thursday.A council comprised of 10 representatives of unions of KB subsidiaries said in a statement Tuesday that it was considering taking legal action against KB Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo and the board members for their alleged malpractice regarding the takeover.“Amid the skeptical market outlook concerning the winner's curse in the long run, our group employees have been forced to bear an excessive financial burden,” the council said. “The management, which has caused a controversy over its expensive purchase and has promoted the deal as an achievement, seems to have started making preparations for the chairman's reappointment through the unreasonable M&A signed before the expiration of his term in November.”The coun

Apr 23, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

KB Financial beset by Prudential takeover

JP Morgan Seoul office punished for poor internal control system

J.P. Morgan Chase headquarters in New York /AFP-YonhapBy Kim Bo-eunThe Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has directed J.P. Morgan's Korean brokerage unit to improve its internal control system.The authority's action came a week ago, after it determined in an inspection conducted last year that the brokerage unit did not have a proper control system monitoring exchanges among affiliates.The FSS concluded that the brokerage unit intervened in the sales process of structured deposits of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank's Seoul branch.A structured deposit is a combination of a deposit and an investment product, where the return is dependent on the performance of an underlying financial instrument.The FSS stated the J.P. Morgan's Korean brokerage unit intervened in the decision-making process of transaction scale and prices of structured deposits of the bank unit here.The agency also found that records were not kept on meetings with affiliates.In addition, the unit failed to properly monitor communication between its staff and other units, the FSS inspection showed.Only one employee checked email

Apr 23, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

JP Morgan Seoul office punished for poor internal control system

Agreement on fostering fintech startups

Shinhan Card's head of management planning Moon Dong-kwon, left, poses with chief of D.Camp Kim Hong-il, center, and Visa Korea Vice President Lee Yoo-jin, after the three parties signed an agreement to help foster fintech startups, at D.Camp in southern Seoul, Wednesday. D.Camp is a foundation that offers working space for startups and connects them to investors. Courtesy of Shinhan Card

Apr 22, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Binance annoys Woori

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, left, and Woori Bank CEO Kwon Kwang-seok / Courtesy of each companyBy Park Jae-hyukConflict has intensified between Binance and Woori Bank, after the China-based cryptocurrency exchange's Korean operation started using a corporate account issued by the commercial bank for cryptocurrency trading here, according to industry officials, Tuesday.Binance has used the BxB's corporate account issued by Woori for virtual assets trading, as it launched the Korean operation in April after taking over BxB, a local fintech firm developing the Korean won-based stablecoins.In response, Woori decided to suspend Binance's bank account on April 9, and Binance immediately filed an injunction against the measure.Although the Seoul Central District Court ruled against Woori's recent suspension of Binance's bank account, the litigation is expected to be prolonged as the bank is considering filing an appeal against the decision.The bank claimed it had suspended Binance's bank account to comply with the financial regulator's guidelines that bar corporate accounts from being used

Apr 22, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Kiwoom unprepared for 'negative' oil prices

A woman passes by an electronic board showing the West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery closing at negative $37.63 per barrel at the Yonhap Infomax head office in Seoul, Tuesday. / YonhapBy Park Jae-hyukKiwoom Securities is facing lawsuits from customers as its home trading system (HTS) malfunctioned after crude oil prices dipped below zero, according to industry officials, Tuesday.The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery closed at negative $37.63 per barrel in New York, Monday (local time), a day before the expiration of the May delivery.When the U.S. benchmark oil prices turned negative for the first time in history, trading systems of Korean brokerages failed to perceive these unprecedented “negative prices.” Domestic investors alleged they could not sell their crude oil futures as a result, although they wanted to sell their futures at a loss. Those who maintained long positions said they were forced to liquidate their futures after receiving cash calls.As Kiwoom was late to correct the errors, its customers are expected to have suffered great

Apr 21, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Kiwoom unprepared for 'negative' oil prices

Oil prices unlikely to bounce back soon

Korean lender to pay$86 mln in penalties to US over Iran transactions

South Korean lender Industrial Bank of Korea said Tuesday that it has agreed to pay penalties totaling US$86 million to the U.S. authorities in a settlement that ended a yearslong U.S. probe into illegal U.S. dollar payments from South Korean entities to Iranian ones.The IBK said it will pay a $51 million penalty to U.S. prosecutors and a $35 million penalty to the New York State Department of Financial Services over its lack of an anti-money laundering program at its branch in New York.Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said IBK's branch in New York failed to detect and report $10 million in illegal U.S. dollar payments from South Korean entities to Iranian ones, as the bank failed to institute an effective anti-money laundering program."Banks conducting business in the U.S. have a responsibility to ensure that they establish safeguards against the exploitation of the banking system by sanctioned entities that foster, promote, or engage in terrorism," Berman said in a statement posted on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Sout

Apr 21, 2020

Korean lender to pay$86 mln in penalties to US over Iran transactions

IBK fined $35 mil. for flouting US anti-money laundering law

By Kim Bo-eunIndustrial Bank of Korea CEO Yoon Jong-wonThe Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) must pay a $35 million fine to New York State for violating the New York Bank Secrecy Act which governs anti-money laundering laws, New York's State Department of Financial Services (DFS) said Monday. The DFS and the Korean state-run lender have entered into a consent order over the penalty. In the U.S., a consent order is a voluntary agreement between two or more parties to a dispute."The Industrial Bank of Korea until recently failed to demonstrate sustained improvement in its compliance with New York and federal anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering laws," Superintendent of Financial Services Linda Lacewell said in a statement.The DFS said IBK had repeated problems in maintaining adequate policies and procedures for anti-money laundering compliance, from 2010 to 2019.Due to its deficient transaction monitoring program, the IBK failed to prevent a billion-dollar fraud on its bank and New York branch in 2011, the authority said.At the time a small business owner converted payments received i

Apr 20, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

IBK fined $35 mil. for flouting US anti-money laundering law

Card companies' big data help virus-hit small firms

GettyimagesbankBy Anna J. ParkCredit card companies have accumulated an enormous amount of big data based on their card holders' payment information. Such information has not only helped the health authorities track exact movements of confirmed COVID-19 patients in the early stages of the pandemic in the country, it has also helped many mom-and-pop stores across the country, which have been directly hit by the global pandemic with the plunging number of customers due to social distancing.Major card companies, including BC, KB Kookmin and Shinhan, have come up with plans to buttress the nation's small businesses by providing their own marketing tools and sales strategies based on big data analysis.BC Card has joined hands with the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Data Agency in supporting a data voucher project, through which the government distributes data vouchers to small businesses and startup companies. Companies with the voucher can receive various categories of big data useful for their businesses. The data includes a vast spectrum of information, from spending pattern

Apr 20, 2020By Anna J. Park

Card companies' big data help virus-hit small firms

FSS, banks in talks to launch bad bank to save Lime losses

By Kim Bo-eunThe Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and financial firms that sold Lime Asset Management funds are in talks to set up a bad bank to help companies recoup losses from the troubled hedge fund, according to the financial regulator Monday. A bad bank is a corporate structure set up to buy poorly performing assets from another financial institution.Nineteen banks and securities firms including Woori Bank and Shinhan's banking and brokerage units will likely comprise the body to take over Lime's assets. The three are the top three distributors, accounting for 64 percent of the total amount distributed.The new entity will be in charge of selling assets of Lime's funds in order to issue payments to investors. About 1.67 trillion won of investors' money is in Lime's funds, for which redemptions have been suspended."Six of the major distributors shared with others the plan at the meeting today," an FSS official said. "It will take time to decide how much the firms will contribute to the new body."He noted that once key decisions are made, the bad bank could be set up in June at