The Financial Supervisory Service said in its recent report that investment in fintech firms showed an increase of 30.4 percent in seven out of eight countries where regulatory sandboxes are currently in effect for more than one year.A regulatory sandbox can be defined as temporary deregulation for

South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves increased by US$3 billion to a record high of US$406.3 billion last month as a result of a weak U.S. dollar.The previous high, US$405.5 billion, was posted in January this year. A weak U.S. dollar tends to result in an increase in the value of the Bank of Kore

Shinhan Bank and the State Bank of Vietnam are planning to work together on an e-Know Your Customer (e-KYC) system, which is expected to boost mobile financial services in the country. In addition, Shinhan Bank’s online account opening system in Indonesia is expected to be approved by the local auth

Korea’s cryptocurrency industry is making all-out efforts to build an anti-money laundering (AML) system to comply with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATA) that go into effect in June 2020.The inter-governmental watchdog asks cryptocurrency exchanges and virtual asset servi

Naver has climbed to third place in the KOSPI market in terms of market capitalization as it share price hit a 52-week high on the back of an improvement in operating profits and an expansion of its financial business.Naver closed at 164,000 won on Oct. 31, up 6.15 percent (9,500 won) from the previ

Hyundai Card has entered the Vietnamese financial market by acquiring a 50 percent stake in Vietnam's consumer finance company, Finance Company Limited for Community (FCCOM), for 49 billion won.The card company signed a contract on stake acquisition on Oct. 28.FCCOM is a wholly owned subsidiary

BC Card has attracted investment from China UnionPay Merchant Services Co. (China UMS), a subsidiary of China UnionPay, by selling part of its shares. This is the first time BC Card attracted foreign capital.BC Card announced on Oct. 30 that it has signed a deal to sell part of its stake in its subs

Eugene Investment said on Oct. 29 that some index-following passive investment funds will have to sell part of their Samsung Electronics shares if the stock becomes subject to the KOSPI 200 market capitalization cap.“Those funds are likely to purchase other stocks constituting the KOSPI 200 index if

South Korean investors’ overseas stock trading value hit an all-time quarterly high in the third quarter of this year along with their overseas securities trading value. This is because the South Korean stock market is moving sideways and South Korean companies’ business outlook is not bright.The Ko

South Korea’s publicly traded banks and bank holding companies rank 29th among the 34 OECD countries in terms of the price-to-book ratio (PBR), a researcher of the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF) has found.Seo Byeong-ho, a senior KIF researcher said in a report released on Oct. 27 that average PBR

KB Kookmin Bank opened KB InsighT Yeouido on Oct. 27. It is the first bank branch in South Korea that is run solely by information technology personnel.“This branch, which starts with 10 engineers and has few precedents worldwide, is to deal with process-related complaints without delay and without

The Financial Supervisory Service announced on Oct. 27 that the collateralized loan obligation (CLO) investment of non-bank institutional investors in South Korea totaled 7,614.9 billion won in the first half of this year. The CLO is a high-risk financial product that triggered the global financial

The Bank of Korea announced on Oct. 25 that the average daily foreign exchange trading volume of foreign exchange banks was US$56.1 billion in the third quarter of this year, down US$1.52 billion from the previous quarter.The volume fell in that quarter after an increase in the first and second quar

Korea Exchange (KRX) announced on Oct. 24 that it has opened a cross-border M&A intermediation network as an online platform to help South Korean companies merge with and acquire foreign companies.The network, which provides data and information on foreign companies for sale, currently shows about 2

Mega investment banks in South Korea celebrate their second anniversary next month but their business performance is still short of expectations. This is because various regulations are hindering their business as well as approvals.Their issued note balance, which constitutes their main business, to

The sale of KDB Life Insurance is showing little progress as Korea Development Bank (KDB), which owns the insurer, suggests a price of as high as 800 billion won for it. Although KDB Life Insurance completed subordinated debt refunding to mitigate the burden, the annual interest burden is still high

It is becoming increasingly difficult for approximately 1,000 trillion won worth of hot money to find investment destinations with the Bank of Korea having lowered the key rate to 1.5 percent in July and to 1.25 percent this month. Despite the lowered interest rate, investors are reluctant to invest

KB Financial Group expands its global business based on a strategic alliance with Stifel, a U.S.-based investment banking company.According to industry sources, KB Financial Group chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo and Stifel chairman Ron Kruszewski are going to sign a strategic partnership agreement on Oct. 2

SK Group is continuing to raise funds aggressively by issuing corporate bonds. The group has raised 8,752 billion won through bond issuance so far this year. The amount is estimated to reach 10 trillion won at the end of this year with SK Chemical and SK Siltron about to issue additional corporate b

The Bank of Korea lowered the key rate from 1.5 percent to a record low of 1.25 percent on Oct. 16 based on its conclusion that the South Korean economy is losing steam with exports and investments decreasing at the same time. The possibility of deflation also affected its benchmark rate determinati