Toss Bank, which is poised to become the country’s third internet-only bank, attracted more than half a million subscribers to its pre-registration of their deposit accounts in just three days, the company said Monday. The online bank was able to draw attention from customers by offering an annual interest of 2 percent, higher than the average interest rate offered by commercial banks at less than 1 percent, as a marketing strategy. “We were able to confirm consumers’ demand

Market Sept. 13, 2021

　Retail investors bought more than 1 trillion won ($854 billion) worth of Kakao shares for three days from Wednesday to Friday, when they fell 15 percent amid record short-selling triggered by mounting concerns over tightening regulations.   The country’s fifth-biggest in market capitalization has been targeted for massive short selling due to a rapid price fall last week over the political move to regulate platform giants,  Foreign investors also dumped shares worth 749.8 bill

Market Sept. 12, 2021

With politicians and regulators joining forces to strengthen monitoring of fast-growing IT platforms, shares of South Korea’s two tech giants plummeted Thursday, losing a combined 19 trillion won ($16.2 billion) in just two days. Naver, the country’s third-largest company by market capitalization, declined 2.56 percent, or 10,500 won, to close at 399,000 won Thursday, adding to a 7.87 percent fall recorded the previous day. Kakao plummeted 7.22 percent to 128,500 won after losing 1

Market Sept. 9, 2021

Bitcoin’s trading price declined to about 55 million won ($47,200) locally Wednesday afternoon, only 24 hours after it touched 60 million won for the first time in three months, data from Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange showed. The decline came as El Salvador became the world’s first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday. Bitcoin, the original and largest cryptocurrency, hit the 60 million-won milestone on Feb. 20 and continued to rise to 82 mi

Market Sept. 8, 2021

KakaoBank, the country’s mobile-only bank that went public a month ago, saw its shares fall for three consecutive days on Monday due to an expiring lock-in period for millions of its shares. Shares in the banking arm of mobile giant Kakao declined more than 5 percent to 77,300 won ($66.76) in morning trade, while the benchmark Kospi inched up 0.04 percent. Some 3.14 million shares or 8.72 percent of the total shares subscribed by institutional investors became available for trading as

Market Sept. 6, 2021

Blockchain is not a technological concept anymore. It’s starting to apply to real life and becoming a mainstream, irreversible trend, Dunamu CEO Lee Sir-goo said during the Upbit Developers Conference last week. “When the Internet first emerged, exponential growth began after services that people can use in real life and as for artificial intelligence, after years of research, it only started to receive attention when it was translated into real services,” Lee noted. “

Economy Sept. 5, 2021

Bithumb, one of South Korea’s four major cryptocurrency exchanges, said Thursday that foreigners who fail to verify their identities via mobile phones will not be allowed to use the platform. The decision came as the exchange gears up to register with the financial authorities by Sept. 24 -- the deadline under the revised Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. As a result, foreigners who cannot provide verification via Korean mobile phones will not be ab

Market Sept. 3, 2021

Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on Wednesday kicked off its signature annual Upbit Developer Conference with global industry experts. The company said that its two-day conference features pressing issues in the industry such as nonfungible tokens, decentralized finance, smart contracts, central bank digital currencies, with 18 global blockchain industry leaders including Lee Jung-bong , CEO of Seoul Auction Blue, and Cuy Sheffield, vice president and

Market Sept. 1, 2021

South Korea’s three top cryptocurrency exchanges -- Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- launched a joint venture to co-develop solutions for a “travel rule” system, the companies said Tuesday. They invested 300 million won ($258,115) each in the new joint venture, COnnect Digital Exchanges or CODE, to satisfy the mandate before the deadline set by the government and an international anti-money laundering body. The travel rule is a global standard imposed by the Financial Actio

Market Aug. 31, 2021

Despite the Parliament’s approval of the nomination of the Financial Services Commission’s new chairman on Friday, concerns remain over his familial ties with the chairman of Korea Investment Holdings, the parent group of a major South Korean brokerage firm. The FSC chief nominee, Koh Seung-beom, is the brother-in-law of Kim Nam-goo, chairman and CEO of Korea Investment Holdings, which controls Korea Investment & Securities, the nation’s second-largest securities company

Economy Aug. 29, 2021

Netmarble sold 133 billion won ($114 million) worth of shares in KakaoBank to secure liquidity, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday, ahead of the payment deadline for its acquisition of a social casino game company. This is the second time the mobile game company unloaded its holding in KakaoBank after it sold 6 million shares for 430 billion won on Aug. 10, just days after the internet-only bank successfully made its market debut on Aug. 6. After the two rounds of offloading, it still hol

Market Aug. 26, 2021

The Korea Fintech Industry Association said Tuesday that lawmakers must move forward with the critical Electronic Financial Transactions Act, which has been at an impasse at the National Assembly for several months, joining earlier calls from some politicians and the central bank in the wake of the Mergeplus fiasco. The association, which represents 330 fintech companies, said that the Mergeplus incident was “predictable.” Without the revision of the EFTA -- which had not under

Market Aug. 24, 2021

Almost 40 percent of South Korea’s top 200 listed companies have established committees to deal with environmental, social and corporate governance issues, with a majority of them having caught on to the trend this year, a report from consulting firm Samjong KPMG showed Monday. Out of the Kospi200 companies, which make up 93 percent of the total market of the country’s main bourse, 76 companies or 38 percent have set up ESG committees, including one that has two councils. Out of t

Economy Aug. 23, 2021

The most expensive apartment sold this year was in The Penthouse Cheongdam, a luxurious residence also known as PH129, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed on Monday. One unit with an exclusive use area of 273.96 square meters on the 14th floor of the 20-floor building was sold for 11.5 billion won ($9.79 million) in March. Another unit of the same size on the sixth floor was traded at 10 billion won. The apartment, located in southern Seoul‘s Gangnam Dis

Market Aug. 23, 2021

KakaoBank, South Korea’s largest digital-only bank, beat out Hyundai Motor, one of the world’s largest carmakers, in terms of market capitalization on Friday morning, becoming 8th most valuable company here. Shares of KakaoBank rose 1.85 percent to 92,300 won ($77.98) during the morning trade to surpass the 44 trillion won-mark before it closed at 1.09 percent lower to 91,000 won. Hyundai Motor shares, meanwhile, declined more than 1 percent to 204,000 won apiece, losing

Market Aug. 20, 2021