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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.

Can financial firms run football, baseball clubs?

Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Ham Young-joo, left, holds a contract with Daejeon Mayor Her Tae-jeong at the Daejeon City Hall, Tuesday, after signing an agreement to invest in Daejeon Citizen Football Club. / Courtesy of Daejeon Metropolitan GovernmentBy Park Jae-hyukQuestions have arisen in both the financial and sport industries since it was revealed last Tuesday that Hana Financial Group signed an agreement to take over Daejeon Citizen Football Club.The current laws that prohibit financial services firms from holding stakes in non-financial companies have barred banks and brokerages from owning professional football and baseball clubs, because they are required to stand as independent entities.Lenders, insurers and savings banks have therefore run basketball and volleyball clubs, which do not need to stand as independent corporations, due to their relatively smaller sizes.Or, financial firms have carried out sports marketing by sponsoring football and baseball leagues.KEB Hana Bank sponsoring the Korea Professional Football League (K League) and Shinhan Bank supporting the Ko

Nov 12, 2019By Park Jae-hyuk
Can financial firms run football, baseball clubs?

Mirae Asset founder aims to expand presence in SE Asia

Mirae Asset Financial Group founder Park Hyeon-jooBy Jhoo Dong-chanFor Mirae Asset Financial Group founder Park Hyeon-joo, 2019 has been a milestone year as its vision to make the group a global player has been taking shape. The group has not only strengthened its foothold abroad but also gained recognition in the global initial public offering by organizing the listing of foreign firms on overseas stock exchanges.Against this backdrop, Mirae Asset Daewoo, the group's brokerage arm that has already boasted its presence in overseas markets on a solid earnings streak, is eyeing Vietnam and other Southeast Asian markets as future growth engines, the brokerage said.The securities firm said its local unit in Vietnam raised 60 billion won ($51.92 million) worth of capital by issuing new stocks on the bourse there this month. Thanks to the recapitalization, Mirae Asset Daewoo Vietnam has become the country's largest securities firm with gross capital of 272.8 billion won. It also posted an 8.1 billion won net profit in the first half of the year, up 76 percent from a year ago.“We

Nov 11, 2019By Jhoo Dong-chan
Mirae Asset founder aims to expand presence in SE Asia

Making kimchi with migrant women

Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Ham Young-joo, third from left, holds kimchi with the group executives and migrant women, during a “gimjang” experience, or annual kimchi-making, at the group's headquarters in Seoul, Monday. The banking group made kimchi with 11,111 heads of cabbage and donated them to the underprivileged. / Courtesy of Hana Financial Group

Nov 11, 2019By Park Jae-hyuk
Making kimchi with migrant women

Unconventional chief leads innovation at Kookmin Bank

By Kim Bo-eunHur YinHur Yin is not the conventional type of figure to lead a bank. In his first term as KB Kookmin Bank's CEO, he placed top priority on innovation. He is set to serve a second term until Nov. 20 2020 after shareholders' approved his reappointment at their meeting, ThursdayHur, while not originally from Kookmin Bank or the Housing & Commercial Bank, from which KB's CEOs have usually been appointed, became a de facto employee after banks he worked at were taken over by KB..A law major, he entered the Korea Long Term Credit Bank in 1988, which at the time was a small bank with only 300 staff.Kookmin took over the Long Term Credit Bank in 1998 and the Housing & Commercial Bank in 2001.In November, 2017, Hur was appointed the youngest bank CEO here, at the age of 56. Once he had assumed the position, he began making drastic changes in an attempt to make the bank's organizational culture more flexible.Under Hur, Kookmin abolished uniforms for female bank tellers.Hur has also taken the initiative to digitize the bank.It replaced paper documents with tablet PCs at co

Nov 11, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Unconventional chief leads innovation at Kookmin Bank

Shinhan Card introduces credit rating system in Kazakhstan

Shinhan Card CEO Lim Young-jin speaks at the company's 12th founding anniversary ceremony, held at its headquarters in central Seoul, Oct. 1. / Courtesy of Shinhan CardBy Kim Bo-eunShinhan Card said Monday that Shinhan Finance, its subsidiary in Kazakhstan, has launched a mobile data-based alternative credit scoring system, a model the card firm plans to introduce in other emerging markets.Alternative credit scoring is used in markets that lack traditional data such as customer credit reports. It uses non-financial data such as digital footprints to rate the customer's credit.Shinhan Card developed the system with fintech firm CrePASS, which specializes in alternative credit scoring. The collaboration is part of the government's initiative to have financial firms work with fintech startups. Shinhan's mobile application is able to gather data and process it. The app develops a rating model based on data such as the model of the mobile phone and whether the person uses the calendar or Bluetooth function.This model is proving useful for Shinhan Card's subsidiaries in countries where cre

Nov 11, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Shinhan Card introduces credit rating system in Kazakhstan

Eximbank under investigation for bribery

gettyimagesbankExport-Import Bank of Korea CEO Bang Moon-kyuBy Park Jae-hyukThe Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) has been under police investigation over the past two months for bribery charges against its employees, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's sophisticated crime investigation division, Sunday. The employees were allegedly entertained by securities firms in exchange for selecting them as lead managers for the state-run bank's issuance of bonds denominated in foreign currencies.When financial institutions issue foreign bonds to secure key currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen, brokerages and banks selected as lead managers are supposed to attract foreign investors, using their wide investment networks in each country.Eximbank has mostly selected foreign brokerages and banks as lead managers for its issuance of foreign bonds.Given that lead managers have received a 0.3 percent commission on the amount issued, brokerages and banks have competed fiercely for the job.Between January 2014 and December 2018, Eximbank issued foreign

Nov 10, 2019By Park Jae-hyuk
Eximbank under investigation for bribery

Borrowers face unfavorable market conditions

Bank tellers tend to customers in this file photo / Yonhap By Kim Bo-eunIt has become increasingly tough for individuals and businesses to borrow money, due to rising mortgages rates as well as the government's regulations, data showed Sunday.Data shows the interest rate for fixed rate mortgages of Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori, KEB Hana and Nonghyup banks are set to rise by 0.035 percentage points to 0.09 percentage points, Monday, from the figures a week earlier on Nov. 4.This compares with the rates before the Bank of Korea cut the key rate from 1.5 percent to 1.25 percent on Oct. 16. Compared with the rates of the major banks on Oct. 14, Monday's rates will be higher by 0.29 percentage points to 0.55 percentage points.The rise in loan interest rates is based on the market rate. Yields for three-year bonds which stood at 1.345 percent on July 18 fell to 1.093 percent on Aug. 19 but have been on the rise since. The rate also rose from 1.32 percent on Oct. 16 to 1.518

Nov 10, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Borrowers face unfavorable market conditions

Security concerns persist over open banking

By Kim Bo-eun Korea Times file Over 1 million people signed up for open banking services in the first week after it was launched on Oct. 30, but security concerns linger, according to financial industry officials Sunday.Open banking enables users to check all their bank accounts on a single application and transfer funds with it. Data shows 1.02 million people registered 1.83 million accounts in the first week of the system's launch from Oct. 30 to Nov. 5. During this period, services available under the system were used 12.15 million times.While the open banking system enhances convenience for users, it poses security risks, as it opens up once-closed networks to players in the system.Currently the five major commercial banks ― Shinhan, KB Kookmin, KEB Hana, Woori and Nonghyup ― and the regional banks of Busan, Jeju, Kyongnam and Jeonbuk and the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) are taking part.Eight others, including more state-run, foreign, regional and internet banks

Nov 10, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Security concerns persist over open banking

Ready to climb stairs

Participants in a vertical marathon pose before climbing 1,251 stairs inside the 63 Building in Seoul, Sunday. Hanwha Life Insurance, the host of this annual event, said 630 runners took part in the competition. / Yonhap

Nov 10, 2019By Park Jae-hyuk
Ready to climb stairs

Korean banks struggle to secure workers in SE Asia

By Jhoo Dong-chanDomestic banks, which are expanding their presence in Southeast Asia to overcome Korea's saturated financial market, are experiencing difficulties in securing quality workers there.With more foreign financial firms entering the market, they are struggling to retain talented employees in the region as an increasing number of their workers are asking for higher wages, and then moving to other financial companies once their demands are not met.According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the nation's financial firms operate a total 433 branches and offices in 43 countries as of the end of June.Of their foreign markets, Southeast Asia has been the most favorable destination for domestic financial firms, reflecting the market's rapid economic growth over the past couple of years.Despite their smooth entry to the market, sources said these financial firms are experiencing difficulties in securing talented workers with business and language abilities.“Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia have enjoyed several years of rapid economic

Nov 9, 2019By Jhoo Dong-chan
Korean banks struggle to secure workers in SE Asia
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