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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Gov't data disruptions hit Korea's financial services ahead of Chuseok holiday

Financial services in Korea remained disrupted Monday, after a lithium-ion battery fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) on Friday incapacitated identity verification systems nationwide. While no major consumer-facing breakdowns were reported, banks remained in emergency mode, as the end-of-month surge in transactions and the approaching Chuseok holiday added pressure to restore services. As of Monday, national ID cards, or resident registration cards, remained unusable via online and automated channels, suspending non-face-to-face account openings and certificate issuance. At physical branches, tellers had to manually verify identities by calling the government's automated response system, resulting in delays. Brokerages and cryptocurrency exchanges reported similar issues. Remote account openings, one-time password issuance and password resets were halted due to the inability to authenticate users via national ID cards. A banking industry official said that although some digital services were temporarily unavailable and customers experienced delays at branches, overa

Sep 29, 2025By Lee Yeon-woo
Gov't data disruptions hit Korea's financial services ahead of Chuseok holiday

Woori Financial Group to extend $59 bil. to support AI, bio industries

Woori Financial Group plans to invest 80 trillion won ($59 billion) over the next five years to expand lending for artificial intelligence (AI) and other high-tech ventures, innovative small businesses and low-income and low-credit retail borrowers, the group said Monday. This is part of the group's Future Co-growth Initiative. The largest private-sector financial investment seeks to prioritize long-term, sustainable investment, moving away from household mortgage lending, which has long been criticized as the "easiest" way of generating revenue. Woori is the first private-sector investor to commit 10 trillion won for the Lee Jae Myung administration-led 150 trillion won National Growth Fund. Woori's contribution constitutes 13 percent of the 75 trillion won to be funded by the private sector. The financial group also plans to spend 1 trillion won in venture capital through its investment subsidiary, supporting budding high-tech startups from the launch of their business through to their initial public offering (IPO). It plans to lower borrowing costs for 550,000 people, including small

Sep 29, 2025By Lee Kyung-min
Woori Financial Group to extend $59 bil. to support AI, bio industries

Card issuers target growing foreign resident market with new products, services

Credit card companies are increasingly targeting foreign residents, offering discounts and multilingual support, to tap into new sources of growth amid declining profits, industry officials said Friday. Previously, these companies mainly targeted Koreans traveling abroad, but they are now turning their attention to foreign nationals living in the country. NH NongHyup Card recently unveiled a new debit card tailored to foreign nationals. Available to those aged 12 and above with an alien registration card, the card features a postpaid transportation function and offers a variety of discounts at both domestic and international merchants. Cardholders receive a 5 percent rebate on spending at retail stores, restaurants, medical facilities and on public transportation, while digital content subscriptions earn a 10 percent rebate. To extend benefits internationally, the card also offers a 2 percent rebate at overseas merchants and waives ATM withdrawal fees abroad up to twice per year. Hana Card has introduced a multilingual chat support service for foreign customers. Customers can type in their

Sep 27, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
Card issuers target growing foreign resident market with new products, services

Lotte Card data breach puts spotlight on low cybersecurity investment

Concerns over cybersecurity have spread across the credit card industry following a recent data breach incident at Lotte Card, which exposed the personal information of 2.97 million customers, industry officials and politicians said Thursday. Consumer anxiety has intensified as major card issuers, despite highlighting increases in information technology (IT) staffing and budgets, allocated only around 10 percent of those resources to information security. Citing data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Rep. Kang Min-kuk of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said that the combined IT budgets of eight major domestic card companies totaled 5.56 trillion won ($3.97 billion) between 2020 and 2025. Of this, only 556.2 billion won, or about 10 percent, was spent on cybersecurity. Rep. Kim Sang-hoon of the PPP, also citing FSS data, noted that Lotte Card recorded the lowest ratio of information security spending to total annual budget this year at 0.3 percent. Other issuers, including Shinhan, Samsung, BC and Hyundai, allocated about 1 percent of their budgets to cybersecurit

Sep 25, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
Lotte Card data breach puts spotlight on low cybersecurity investment

Korean brokerages to resume US daytime stock trading in November with stronger safeguards

Korean brokerages will restart their suspended daytime trading service for U.S. stocks in November, after the program was put on hold in August last year, industry and government officials said Wednesday. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the country’s financial watchdog, said it will ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to protect investors before the relaunch, while also vowing strict measures in the event of any large-scale system failures. The service allows local investors to buy and sell U.S. stocks during Korea’s daytime hours. Introduced by Samsung Securities in February 2022, it was later expanded to 18 brokerages, with all transactions processed through Blue Ocean ATS (alternative trading system), which is operated by New York-based fintech company Blue Ocean Technologies. However, Blue Ocean ATS experienced a system malfunction on Aug. 5 last year, which came to be known as Black Monday, resulting in the unilateral cancellation of investor orders. Following the incident, Korean brokerages collectively decided to suspend the service on Aug. 16. “After the ma

Sep 25, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
Korean brokerages to resume US daytime stock trading in November with stronger safeguards

MBK apologizes over Homeplus corporate rehabilitation

MBK Partners issued an official apology over Homeplus’ corporate rehabilitation, Wednesday, expressing deep regret for “causing significant concern and disappointment to the public due to our shortcomings in judgment and management as a major shareholder over the past 10 years.” MBK, a private equity firm, owns Homeplus, Korea’s second-largest supermarket chain. “We sincerely regret that Homeplus has reached the critical stage of corporate rehabilitation, causing uncertainty and hardship for numerous employees, partner companies, creditors and customers,” the firm said in a written apology. Homeplus filed for corporate rehabilitation with the Seoul Bankruptcy Court on March 4, following a credit rating downgrade. The move has drawn strong criticism toward MBK, with many accusing the firm of recklessly placing one of the country’s largest supermarket chains into corporate rehabilitation after acquiring it through a leveraged buyout. Prosecutors have also been investigating allegations that Homeplus raised 600 billion won ($430 million) through short-term bonds while conceali

Sep 24, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
MBK apologizes over Homeplus corporate rehabilitation

Hanwha Life, Naver Financial forge strategic partnership for digital innovation

Hanwha Life Financial Services and Naver Financial have signed a strategic partnership for digital innovation in finance, the two companies said Tuesday. The agreement was signed at internet giant Naver’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. It was attended by Hanwha Life Financial Services CEO Choi Seung-young and Naver Financial CEO Park Sang-jin. Under the partnership, Hanwha Life Financial Services, the sales subsidiary of Hanwha Life Insurance, will combine its nationwide network of financial planners with the technical expertise of Naver Pay, the mobile payment arm of Naver Financial. Specifically, Hanwha Life Financial Services will offer customers advice on insurance and other financial policies based on Naver Pay’s data-driven analysis. The two companies will also share their know-how to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted services that recommend and offer consultation on related products. They will go further to integrate Naver Pay’s mobile payment services into various areas of the financial value chain and create business synergy. “This collabo

Sep 23, 2025By Yi Whan-woo
Hanwha Life, Naver Financial forge strategic partnership for digital innovation

MBK Partners denies negligence linked to Lotte Card data breach

MBK Partners has denied allegations that it had neglected security investments in relation to a recent data breach at Lotte Card, asserting that it has been increasing its security-related spending steadily. On Monday, the private equity firm said it had injected around 600 billion won ($430 million) over the past six years into information technology (IT) at the card issuer to enhance security. A cyberattack recently hit Lotte Card's server, resulting in the leak of information for about 2.97 million people, or roughly one-third of its members. Questions have been raised over insufficient security investment, with allegations that the company’s data security budget has declined since MBK's acquisition in 2019. In response, MBK emphasized that Lotte Card’s total IT investment amounted to 592.1 billion won from 2020 to 2025, with 65.46 billion won dedicated to security, representing an average of 11 percent of overall IT spending. The firm noted that IT expenditures from 2020 to 2024 equaled about 40 percent of the card issuer’s net income during the period and about 1.5 times the co

Sep 22, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
MBK Partners denies negligence linked to Lotte Card data breach

Financial groups move to strengthen consumer protection in line with government policy

Financial holding companies are moving quickly to revamp their systems to bolster consumer protections, in line with the Lee Jae Myung administration’s push for a more consumer-centric financial sector, industry officials said Monday. By placing consumer protection at the core of their group strategies, the companies aim to reduce regulatory risks while strengthening trust with authorities, they said. KB Financial Group recently introduced a new consumer protection framework built around three core principles — consumer rights, accountability and trust. The framework combines the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consumer standards with KB Financial’s customer-focused philosophy and field experience. Under the framework, the group will prioritize consumer protection across the entire lifecycle of financial products and services, from development and planning to sales and aftercare. It also plans to expand access to dedicated services for financially vulnerable customers and reinforce its fraud prevention capabilities by developing an artificial intelligence-powered damage

Sep 22, 2025By Jun Ji-hye
Financial groups move to strengthen consumer protection in line with government policy

Data from some 20 private equity funds leaked in hacking attack

Data from around 20 asset management firms in Korea were breached in a hacking incident earlier this month, industry sources said Monday. A cloud server maintained by an IT subcontractor and used mostly by local small and medium-sized private equity funds was hacked by the Russian-speaking ransomware gang Qilin, according to the sources. Qilin claimed that the leaked data include the firms' tax-related documents, employee data and personal information of their investors. Financial authorities said they have yet to receive any reports of credit information leaks that could lead to monetary damage. They added they were aware of the data breach in advance and have been monitoring the situation. The incident is the latest in a series of massive cyber breach cases in the financial sector. Earlier, Lotte Card Co., the country's fifth-largest card issuer, had suffered a data leak affecting some 3 million customers in a hacking attack.

Sep 22, 2025By Yonhap
Data from some 20 private equity funds leaked in hacking attack
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