Financial giant Woori Financial Group said Friday that it has delayed the process to select CEO candidates for its banking unit Woori Bank. The announcement came after the nation’s financial watchdog Financial Supervisory Service decided the day before to impose sanctions on top executives of Woori Financial Group and Hana Financial Group. “The company has decided to readjust the schedule for s...

The daily foreign exchange turnover by local and foreign banks in South Korea climbed to an all-time high in 2019 on a sharp increase in the transaction of derivatives, central bank data showed Friday. The daily FX turnover came to an average $55.77 billion in the year, up $260 million, or 0.5 percent, from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The amount marks the highe...

From face masks to thermometers, banks take precautions for local customers, mull contingency plans for overseas operations

This marks the longest period that a CEO of a financial institution has been unable to enter his office. KB Kookmin Bank’s former CEO Lee Kun-ho was obstructed for 14 consecutive days upon his appointment in 2013. Lee, who was appointed in a similar top-down manner under the Park Geun-hye administration, also met with union resistance over government involvement. IBK union members have consisten...

Korea’s state-backed fund seeking a commitment of 1.5 trillion won ($1.27 billion) is looking to raise 900 billion won in private money, its lead fund manager Samsung Asset Management said Tuesday. The fund has a maturity of 30 years and is set to close all transactions by October 2024. The fund is designed to target overseas infrastructure assets, ranging from new and renewable energy plants, ...

AlpenRoute Asset Management said Tuesday it may opt to suspend investor withdrawal of assets worth 181.7 billion won ($154.4 million) from its 26 open-ended funds by February to ward off illiquidity, as the distrust of hedge fund managers across South Korea has triggered abrupt money withdrawal attempts. Of its 226.4 billion won assets in open-ended funds -- designed to allow investors to withdr...

A cap on Samsung Electronics’s weight in a Korean equity index could kick in earlier than planned, triggering fears that billions of dollars will exit the stock. Instead of the bi-annual adjustment, the Korea Exchange is considering putting a 30 percent limit on Samsung’s weighting on the Kospi 200 Index earlier due to the stock’s recent rally, said Ahn Kil-Hyun, the manager of the team that ove...

Protests outside the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea are expected to intensify, with the union’s fight against the top-down appointment of CEO Yoon Jong-won gaining support from powerful national labor associations in recent weeks. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of the two largest umbrella labor organizations here, announced Wednesday that it was joining the IBK unionists in prote...

A luxury mansion owned by the chairwoman of retail giant Shinsegae Group remained the most expensive house in South Korea this year, data showed Wednesday. According to the Land Ministry, the declared value of Shinsegae chief Lee Myeong-hee’s 2,861-square-meter house in Hannam-dong, Seoul, was 27.7 billion won ($23.82 million) this year, taking the top spot on the list of 220,000 detached houses...

Chairman to retain leadership despite conviction on some of the accusations against him

Foreign currency deposits held by banks in South Korea rose sharply from a month earlier in December, central bank data showed Tuesday, apparently on the weakening of the US greenback that prompted both individuals and firms to boost their dollar holdings. The outstanding foreign currency deposits here came to $79.44 billion as of end-December, up $4.57 billion from a month before, according to ...

Fate of Shinhan, Woori, Hana chiefs to be decided Wednesday

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion’s key affiliates said Friday they have yet to set a clear blueprint in regards to Chairman Seo Jung-jin’s hint at the blockbuster merger of Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm by as early as 2021. “The company is considering the merger plan on the premise of shareholder agreement, but we have yet to make any confirmation as to how and...

Woori Financial Group, South Korea’s fourth-largest banking group by assets, walked away from a bid to buy a 100 percent stake in Prudential Life Insurance of Korea, according to the group on Thursday. Woori Financial, Korea’s only banking group without an insurance unit, did not join the preliminary bidding round for the sale of a 2 trillion-won ($1.73 billion) stake in Prudential Financial’s K...

Alpha Holdings, the largest shareholder of Nasdaq-listed OncoSec Medical, is pinning hopes on its last-ditch efforts to prevent a takeover of the biopharmaceutical firm by Chinese entities, ahead of its special shareholders meeting on Friday. The South Korean shareholder of OncoSec proposed to have controlling stake and hold four out of seven seats on the New Jersey-based firm’s board by injecti...