Business - The Korea Times

Shinhan call center staff to work from home

A Shinhan Bank call center employee wearing a mask works at the bank's Gangnam District gu office in Seoul, Friday. The bank installed higher partition walls to prevent the spread of COVID-19. / Courtesy of Shinhan BankBy Park Jae-hyukShinhan Bank has become the nation's first commercial bank to allow its customer service center employees to work from home, amid growing fears of potential mass infection of COVID-19 at call centers.Since the cluster infection at Metanet Mplatform call center in Seoul's Guro District, outsourced by Chubb's ACE American Insurance, the authorities have urged financial services companies to make their call centers less crowded.In response, Shinhan decided to let 150 workers do their jobs from home starting Monday.The bank said Sunday its 448 employees who work weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at call centers in Seoul and Incheon will work from home on rotation.If the situation gets worse, the number of call center staff working from home will be 250 per day.Shinhan installed VoIPs and laptops equipped with the company software in the employee's homes.Accord

Mar 15, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Shinhan call center staff to work from home

MBK replaces Lotte Card CEO

Lotte Card CEO nominee Cho Jwa-jinBy Park Jae-hyukLotte Card said Friday that it has nominated former Hyundai Capital America CEO Cho Jwa-jin as the successor to incumbent CEO Kim Chang-kwon.Born in 1967, Cho served as the head of Oliver Wyman's Korean office and a managing director of Hyundai Card.He also led James Cho Management Consulting as CEO.The nominee will be appointed after the general shareholders meeting and the board of directors meeting slated for late March.“As an expert having deep knowledge and experience in the credit card business, Cho is the right person to lead our company's grow into a leading credit card firm,” a Lotte Card official said.The replacement was a surprise as Kim was supposed to serve out his term that ends March 2021.Kim was reappointed to serve another two-year term in October 2019, although MBK Partners acquired a 79.83 percent stake in Lotte Card from Lotte Group.It is usual for private equity firms to reshuffle the management of their portfolio companies.Kim's reappointment was regarded as the largest shareholder's apparent effort t

Mar 15, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Former BC Card CEO to lead K bank

By Kim Bo-eunLee Mun-hwanK bank said Wednesday former BC Card CEO Lee Mun-hwan was selected as the internet bank's next chief.K bank said it selected Lee over the lender's current deputy CEO after holding a CEO recommendation committee meeting the same day.Lee will serve a two-year term, after his appointment is approved at the general shareholders meeting on March 31.As the second CEO of the internet bank, he faces daunting tasks.K bank was launched as the country's first internet bank in April 2017, but suspended almost all business operations in April last year as it had to halt the extension of new loans due to a shortage in capital.The lender had sought to increase its capital base by making telecommunications firm KT its majority shareholder, but has been barred by regulations on internet banks. K bank continues to face uncertainty as revisions to the regulations failed to pass the National Assembly's plenary session last week.Lee is set to step into the bank's chief position at a crucial time point. Lee's nomination is viewed as a means for the lender to increase capital throu

Mar 11, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Financial firms' overseas business faces setback

gettyimagesbankBy Kim Bo-eunThe escalating coronavirus has put the brakes on financial groups' plans for overseas business this year. The postponement of key meetings is set to affect the firms' plans at a time when overseas business has become increasingly important against Korea's dropping growth and interest rates, as well as tighter regulations.Shinhan Financial Group has put off overseas trips preparations for the opening of its startup accelerator program Shinhan Future's Lab in the European region.The group denied that it had specific plans to travel to specific countries, but it had been considering France, the U.K. and Israel as candidate locations for the startup center since last year.It appears visits to the locations for meetings will not be possible for the time being as Israel has banned the entry of travelers that have visited Korea in the last 14 days, and the U.K. has put in place restrictions. Over 100 countries have either banned or restricted travel from Korea.Shinhan group said in December it would launch a project pouring 2.1 trillion into 2,000 competitive sta

Mar 11, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Financial firms' overseas business faces setback

For technological innovation

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo, center, poses with Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) CEO Yoon Jong-won, third from left, Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong, third from right, and other participants at a signing ceremony at Glad Yeouido in Seoul, Wednesday. At the ceremony to raise a 500 billion won ($418 million) master-feeder fund for R&D by small- and medium-sized enterprises, IBK and Shinhan agreed to invest 180 billion won and 100 billion won, respectively. / Courtesy of Shinhan Bank

Mar 11, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Toss to issue store-branded Visa credit card

Toss' store-branded Visa credit card to be launched April 1 / Courtesy of TossBy Kim Bo-eunToss' operator Viva Republica said Tuesday the financial services platform will launch its first private label credit card next month in partnership with Visa and Hana Card.Hana Card will be issuing the store-branded Visa credit card, and Toss will be in charge of accepting applications and marketing. The partnership with Visa enables the card to be used at all of Visa's overseas online and offline merchant stores.The card is designed for millennials; the main users of Toss' services. The card offers discounts and a point rewards scheme for travel, dining and shopping, which includes purchases made on Hotels.com and for local boutique hotels. Payments made at Visa's merchant stores up until the end of this year will be rewarded with 3 percent of the total payment in "Toss cash." Transaction fees of up to $3 will be exempted for Toss card users withdrawing cash from overseas ATMs.All of Toss' credit cards are set to be branded by Visa, based on the partnership."As Toss' first credit card, we hav

Mar 10, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Toss to issue store-branded Visa credit card

Woori chief files injunction against FSS sanctions

Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, left, and Financial Supervisory Service Governor Yoon Suk-heun / Korea Times fileBy Park Jae-hyukWoori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung filed an injunction Sunday against sanctions imposed by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) over the so-called “DLF fiasco,” which prevents him from serving another term, according to industry sources, Monday.Sources said the chairman filed as an individual, not through the company.This came as the FSS notified him of the sanctions imposed on him, Thursday.The notification was a follow-up measure of the Financial Services Commission's (FSC) meeting a day earlier that finalized sanctions against banks and bank executives responsible for major investor losses caused by the mis-selling of high-risk derivative-linked funds (DLFs).The sanctions imposed on the bank executives were finalized after approval by FSS Governor Yoon Suk-heun, Feb. 3, but only went into effect after the executives received notification.Son wants the court to grant a suspension order against the sanctions imposed o

Mar 9, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Woori chief files injunction against FSS sanctions

Shinhan BNPP uses big data to help virus-hit Daegu

Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Company (Shinhan BNPP AMC) CEO Lee Chang-goo, left, donates lunchboxes for needy children in Daegu to KBIZ SME Love Sharing Foundation Chairman Kim Young-rae at the foundation's head office in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Shinhan BNPP AMCBy Park Jae-hyukShinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Company (Shinhan BNPP AMC) has been using big data analysis to support restaurants and needy children in Daegu, the region which is the epicenter of COVID-19 in Korea, the company said Monday.According to the joint venture between Shinhan Financial Group and BNP Paribas Asset Management Company, data collected by Shinhan Card was used to figure out which types of restaurants suffered most from the epidemic.The data showed western-style, Japanese and seafood restaurants suffered the steepest decline in sales as most of them did not offer delivery services.It also showed sales of restaurants in Daegu and the neighboring North Gyeongsang Province dropped 63 percent and 60 percent respectively after the coronavirus outbreak ― the largest declines in sales among rest

Mar 9, 2020By Park Jae-hyuk

Shinhan BNPP uses big data to help virus-hit Daegu

Shinhan chief holding anti-corona meeting

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byung holds an emergency meeting via teleconferencing, Friday, on minimizing customers' inconvenience due to the spread of the coronavirus. He urged executives to remain agile in tackling lingering threats from the COVID-19 epidemic. Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group

Mar 8, 2020By Lee Min-hyung

Shinhan chief holding anti-corona meeting

K bank's capital boost plan back in limbo

Internet bank regulation revisions may be passed after April electionsBy Kim Bo-eunThe future of K bank is up in the air as its plan to boost its capital base came to a deadlock again, with the National Assembly Thursday failing to pass revisions to regulations on internet-only banks.The revisions eliminate requisites for entities seeking to become majority shareholders of internet banks to be clear of violations of the fair trade act. This would allow the telecommunications giant KT to become K bank's majority shareholder by injecting fresh capital into the lender. Last year, they requested financial authorities to review KT's eligibility as the bank's majority shareholder, but this was put on hold because KT was being investigated on allegations of collusion with other telecommunications firms in a circuit line business project.The revisions to the regulations had been passed at the Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee Wednesday, but failed to pass the plenary session the following day.This extends difficult circumstances for K bank, which has suspended extension of new l

Mar 6, 2020By Kim Bo-eun

Banking & Finance