Business - The Korea Times

Customer first!

Kyobo Life Insurance's Consumer Protection Center Head Yoo Hong, third from left, poses with Korea Consumer Agency spokeswoman Jang Eun-kyung, left, and other winners at a ceremony awarding companies for their efforts in consumer-centered management at the Yeoksam Artnouveau Hotel in Seoul, Wednesday. Kyobo became the first insurer to win an award for seven consecutive years. / Courtesy of Kyobo Life Insurance

Jun 28, 2019By Kim Bo-eun

Woori opens API platform for startups

Woori Bank's open API platform / Courtesy of Woori BankBy Park Hyong-kiWoori Bank has opened an online platform where fintech startup entrepreneurs and engineers can use its bank's software tools and programs to build new digital services, the bank said Friday. Woori's application programming interface (API) platform will also provide software guidelines, enabling startup engineers to make use of the programs and integrate them with their own technologies.Fintech startups, for example, can develop digital services related to overseas money transfers, currency exchange and withdrawals, the bank noted.Anyone can connect to the API and commercialize whatever fintech services they have created with the platform's tools. “We will further share our tech resources with engineers and programmers, and make their future innovative services available via our WiBee Bank platform,” said a Woori Bank spokesman. Woori Bank held a tech conference in Seoul the same day to introduce its API platform to existing and potential startup partners. This comes as the Financial Services Commission

Jun 28, 2019

For overseas corporate clients

A model promotes KEB Hana Bank's new service titled “Cash Management Service Global” at the bank's headquarters in Seoul, June 27. The new service was designed to help companies with overseas operations use a one-stop cash wiring service via the bank's platform. Courtesy of KEB Hana Bank

Jun 27, 2019By Lee Kyung-min

KAMCO seeks to better assist troubled SMEs

Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) Chairman Moon Chang-yong speaks during a press conference held at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of KAMCOBy Kim Bo-eunKorea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) will actively assist troubled but viable small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in normalizing their business through revisions to related regulations, its chief said Thursday. "KAMCO's role should be expanded at a time when economic uncertainties are growing and the economic recession continues," KAMCO Chairman Moon Chang-yong said in a press conference held at the Korea Press Center in Seoul.“State-run banks can assume the restructuring of conglomerates and KAMCO can do this for SMEs,” he said.Moon said KAMCO will seek to revise the so-called KAMCO Act that defines the agency's role.“We are seeking to reflect KAMCO's developed role and function in regulations, and create legal grounds for projects to assist businesses in normalizing operations,” he said.Under the law established in 1997, KAMCO's role is defined as “temporaril

Jun 27, 2019By Kim Bo-eun

KAMCO seeks to better assist troubled SMEs

Digital alliance

KB Kookmin Bank CEO Hur Yin, right, holds an MOU with Hyundai Merchant Marine CEO Bae Jae-hoon at the bank's head branch on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Under the deal, the bank will utilize its advanced financial technologies to digitize a payment system for the shipping company. / Courtesy of KB Kookmin Bank

Jun 27, 2019By Jhoo Dong-chan

Forum receives rave reviews from attendees

European Chamber of Commerce in Korea Chairman Dimitris Psillakis, right, listens to a keynote speech during a forum organized by The Korea Times at the Plaza Hotel Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Lee Kyung-min, Jhoo Dong-chanOver 200 guests expressed their appreciation for a digital finance forum organized by The Korea Times, Wednesday, saying it asked the right ― time-relevant ― question in a straightforward manner. Under the topic “Sleeping with the enemy: Digital Disruption,” Korea's oldest English daily held the finance forum on digital transformation to discuss the challenges, business environment outlook and ways forward presented by this new paradigmShortly before the forum began at 7:30 a.m. at the Plaza Seoul Grand Ballroom, dozens of special guests including Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Yoon Suk-heun, Joydeep Sengupta who leads Asia-Pacific Banking Practice at McKinsey & Company as well as bank CEOs and leaders of foreign companies attended a brief tea meeting. Korea Times President and Publisher Lee Byeong-eon speaks

Jun 26, 2019By Lee Kyung-min

Forum receives rave reviews from attendees

INTERVIEW 'Change, adapt, partner for future banking'

Joydeep Sengupta, senior partner of McKinsey & Company, speaks during an interview at the Plaza Hotel in Seoul, June 26. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Park Hyong-kiTraditional banks here will have to do their part such as changing their organizational structures in order to achieve innovation and make their partnerships with fintech startups work, said Joydeep Sengupta, a senior partner  and member of Global Client Council at McKinsey & Company. “Banks have a lot of managerial talent, but I would argue that they need a lot more tech talent. That is what they are short of. But tech talent is not attracted to banks. Such people are attracted to big tech companies,” Sengupta said in an interview after a forum on digital innovation hosted by The Korea Times.“So that is why you have to change the culture, the work environment. Because these are things that are going to attract such tech talent. It is a combination of culture, talent and vision. And it is hard to make a transformation without a cultural change.”So the real question is: Are tradi

Jun 26, 2019

[INTERVIEW] 'Change, adapt, partner for future banking'

FSS to focus on narrowing down digital divide

SC Bank Korea revamps app

Models promote SC Bank Korea's new app / Courtesy of SC Bank KoreaBy Kim Bo-eunSC Bank Korea revamped its mobile services application, strengthening its digital certification system and adding a function through which customers can set a savings target, the bank said Wednesday. The upgraded app integrates two of the banks' previous ones and offers a diverse range of services including account checks and money transfers.The most distinct feature of the app is that customers are able to check all of the accounts they own regardless of the bank they belong to. Customers are able to check their savings, loans, investments and transactions.In addition, SC beefed up security of its certification system through facial features such as iris recognition and fingerprints.Users can login or certify transactions through biometrics or a simplified password.For banks here, the daily transfer limit is 5 million won. SC Bank customers can make transfers of up to 500 million won, by using digital certifications in addition to typing in their account passwords.The app also has a function through which

Jun 26, 2019By Kim Bo-eun

FSS chief tells banks to watch risks from fintech

Financial Supervisory Service Governor Yoon Suk-heun shakes hands with KEB Hana Bank CEO Ji Sung-kyoo at The Korea Times' forum on digital transformation, held at the Plaza Hotel Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulBy Kim Bo-eunThe merging of finance and technology and the innovation it brings benefits players and consumers, but at the same time poses risks, the chief of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Wednesday."If we look on the bright side, fintech can bring about innovation that can greatly increase benefits for financial consumers and institutions," FSS Governor Yoon Suk-heun said at a forum on digital transformation hosted by The Korea Times in Seoul, June 26."But at the same time, it can cause a collapse by aggravating a crisis in the financial system and endangering the security of personal information," he said.The governor said the interconnectedness, speed and the far-reaching effects of systems pose a risk.As an example, Yoon cited if a robo-advisor recommends similar investment strategies to multiple clients, it may cause a concentration o

Jun 26, 2019By Kim Bo-eun

FSS chief tells banks to watch risks from fintech

FSS to focus on narrowing down digital divide

DBS, ING, Ping An offer examples of digital innovation

By Park Hyong-kiING Group in the Netherlands, DBS in Singapore and Ping An in China share something in common when it comes to innovation.They all “rewired” their organizations to embrace new technologies and entrepreneurship to be agile in developing customer-centric services and ecosystems, according to Joydeep Sengupta, a senior partner of McKinsey & Company. For instance, DBS created a startup culture within the company with 22,000 people as it seeks to become not just a multinational bank but a digital or IT company.Under its three key pillars ― customer-centric, data-driven and risk taking, DBS has sought to become “digital to core,” Sengupta said.This was also in line with its goal to make banking fun and joyful.“DBS crafted its digital transformation around the three key pillars, in line with the proposition of making banking joyful,” he said at a forum hosted by The Korea Times in Seoul, June 26. “This is to embed DBS in its customers' journey so that it can make DBS invisible.”He noted DBS' startup culture enabled its empl

Jun 26, 2019

Banking & Finance

Banking & Finance

Customer first!

Woori opens API platform for startups

For overseas corporate clients

KAMCO seeks to better assist troubled SMEs

Digital alliance

Forum receives rave reviews from attendees

INTERVIEW 'Change, adapt, partner for future banking'

SC Bank Korea revamps app

FSS chief tells banks to watch risks from fintech

DBS, ING, Ping An offer examples of digital innovation

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