Game companies’ shares surge amid growing hype over NFTs

South Korean game companies with new business plans to develop games using nonfungible tokens saw their share prices surge Monday, despite concerns over the market being overheated without actual plans laid out to materialize such a big agenda, experts said Monday. Nonfungible tokens refer to the digital counterparts of real-world assets, largely visual art or music, that guarantee ownership through the blockchain technology. Game developers enjoying a sudden spike in stock prices have announ

Nov. 15, 2021

Fractional trading of overseas stocks to expand soon

Fractional share trading of overseas stocks is expected to be in full swing by the end of the year, according to the Korea Securities Depository on Monday. The KSD said it has completed a system that supports fractional share trading for 20 brokerages after it was designated by the Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, as an innovative financial service in a sandbox program last week. In a fractional transaction, when an investor orders to buy less than one

Nov. 15, 2021

Watchdog slaps fine on Naver Financial for security issues

South Korea’s financial watchdog imposed a fine of 23.6 million won ($20,000) on Naver Financial and issued sanctions on its executives, citing the lack of security of its e-payment system and other violations tied to management, reports said Monday. According to local reports, the Financial Supervisory Service earlier this month slapped a fine on Korean portal giant Naver’s wholly owned financial technology unit and issued “warnings,” the lowest level of its five-tier s

Nov. 15, 2021

Shinhan Investment partners UK advisory firm to support bio firms’ overseas entry

Shinhan Investment said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with PharmaVentures, a UK-based leading advisory firm providing whose main clients are health care life science companies, to diverse its investment banking services.  Under the partnership agreement, the two companies will boost cooperation in supporting South Korean biotech and pharmaceutical companies to advance to the global stage, while arranging international firms’ investments in the domestic health car

Nov. 15, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on Wall Street gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday, taking a cue from the Wall Street gains. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 16.43 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,985.23 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 percent Friday. Investors are waiting for the release of China's economic data and the virtual summit of the leaders of the US and China set for this week. China's October

Nov. 15, 2021

Number of Koreans with W1b in assets climbs 10%

Amid liquidity-driven booms in the real estate and stock markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people with assets of more than 1 billion won ($847,000) increased by over 10 percent last year from a year earlier, a report showed Sunday.  The number of Koreans with financial assets worth over 1 billion won stood at 390,000 last year, taking up 0.76 percent of the total population, according to the Korea Wealth Report 2021 released by KB Financial Group Research Institute. The

Nov. 14, 2021

[Herald Interview] K-pop rises as retail investment option

Institutional and corporate investments have supported South Korean cultural contents such as the Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” and megahit Netflix series “Squid Game” on their way to global fame. And their success means a large return in profits from content, often considered as risky investment. A local online platform believes that market access to Korean content ready for production could open to a wider public as retail investors around the world are paying keen int

Nov. 14, 2021

Korea needs to invest more to meet wind power target: EY

South Korea is in need of more aggressive investment in renewable energy sector in order to achieve its offshore wind capacity goal by 2030 and address the country’s geographical weaknesses in wind energy, a report showed Sunday. Korea was ranked 21st in terms of attractiveness of renewable energy investment and deployment opportunities, in a report that announces the top 40 countries in the assessment, according to London-based consulting firm Ernst & Young. Korea has slid down the

Nov. 14, 2021

[Law Talk] Importance of internal controls for financial institutions

For the past year, the financial crisis caused by the unsound business practices of certain financial companies such as Lime, Optimus and companies that sold derivative-linked funds, has been the hottest topic within the financial industry. Following the eruption of these well-publicized scandals, financial supervisory authorities began sanctioning financial companies for unsound business practices, fraud perpetrated by fund managers, and misleading sales practices known as “incomplete sal

Nov. 14, 2021

Coinone wins approval, but Bithumb’s application still pending

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone has passed the high bar for official registration while the case of its bigger rival Bithumb remains pending, the country’s top financial regulator said Friday. The Financial Intelligence Unit, an anti-money laundering unit under the Financial Services Commission, approved Coinone’s application to register its virtual asset business but is holding off on a decision about Bithumb. Market insiders suggested that the delay might have something to

Nov. 12, 2021

FSS warns KakaoBank to strengthen anti-money laundering measures

South Korea’s financial watchdog on Friday warned online-only lender KakaoBank to improve its monitoring system that protects against money laundering. Financial Supervisory Service concluded that KakaoBank’s anti-money-laundering team lacks a monitoring process, relying only on receiving tips from other teams. As a result of weak monitoring, the online lender failed to ring the alarm on several cases that involved suspicious money transfers overseas, the FSS said. For instance,

Nov. 12, 2021

Krafton, Kakao Games to join MSCI Korea Index

Morgan Stanley Capital International said Friday that it has added six South Korean stocks, including local gaming giants Kakao Games and Krafton, to its regional emerging market index via November’s quarterly review. According to the capital market indexes provider, the rest of the list includes L&F, a battery materials manufacturer, fashion company F&F, diagnostics company SD Biosensor and Iljin Materials, an electronics components manufacturer. At the same time, it took thre

Nov. 12, 2021

Seoul stocks spike 1.5% on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks surged by 1.5 percent Friday as investors scooped up oversold stocks after the recent slide. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 43.88 points, or 1.5 percent, to close at 2,968.8 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 655 million shares worth some 12.3 trillion won ($10.4 billion), with gainers outnumbering losers 766 to 118. Foreigners bought a net 430 billion won, while retail investors sold 1

Nov. 12, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on tech, auto gains

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, largely backed by gains in tech, auto and bio shares. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 22.29 points, or 0.76 percent, to 2,947.21 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics increased 0.52 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix advanced 1.4 percent, and pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics added 0.37 percent. Hyundai Motor, the country's largest carmaker, moved up 1.22 percent, and elect

Nov. 12, 2021

Know your customers: Top bankers hit playgrounds of digital natives

In a studio decorated with colorful mascot dolls, NH NongHyup Bank CEO Kwon Joon-hak, who leads South Korea’s fifth-largest commercial bank, on Tuesday made his YouTube live debut. Co-hosting the one-hour event with a comedian, Kwon ditched the image of an unapproachable corporate representative, and transformed into a “guy next door” making jokes with customers online. “I’m a little nervous but will do my best to have a great time with our customers participating

Nov. 11, 2021

Citibank Korea strengthens community outreach programs, ESG drive

As part of efforts to grow together with the local community, Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup, has carried out diverse social contribution programs, while beefing up management activities focused on environmental, social and governance factors, or ESG, the lender said Thursday.  Based on three principles, including employee participation, long-term commitment and leading activity, the foreign bank has continuously fostered a volunteer culture among employees for its corp

Nov. 11, 2021

KIC, cooperative federations to coinvest $300m with foreign hedge funds

South Korea’s sole sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corp. said Thursday that it has teamed up with two Korean institutional investors to deploy a combined $300 million for co-investment with non-Korean hedge funds in a bid to increase foreign alternatives exposure. Under the plan, the three entities -- KIC, National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives -- will create a joint venture before the end of 2021 and start their first co-inv

Nov. 11, 2021

At COP26, KB chief vows ‘positive strategy’ for green shift

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo shared the banking group’s plans in combating climate change at an invitation-only meeting of senior officials across global sectors and governments held Wednesday at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the firm said Thursday. At the 9th High-Level Meeting of Caring for Climate, held online and offline simultaneously, Yoon was invited on behalf of the global finance sector to speak on the topic of achieving a j

Nov. 11, 2021

Seoul stocks open lower amid inflation woes

South Korean stocks opened lower Thursday, taking a cue from the estimate-beating inflation data in the United States that fanned concerns about faster than expected rate hikes. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) decreased 15.85 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,914.32 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The key stock index retreated as US consumer prices grew at the fastest pace since 1990. Overnight, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite plunged 1.66 percent, and the Dow Jones In

Nov. 11, 2021

Top 10 brokerages log record earnings this year

South Korea's leading securities companies posted record earnings in the first nine months of this year on a stock market boom, industry sources said Thursday. The country's top 10 brokerage housed are estimated to have registered a combined net profit of around 7 trillion won ($5.9 billion) for the January-September period, with their full-year bottom line likely to exceed 10 trillion won. Their record net profit comes as the local stock market has been on a roll this year on the back of acti

Nov. 11, 2021