High-net-worth-individuals who subscribe to private banking products were more inclined to invest in foreign countries than domestic, showed a survey by Korea’s brokerage house Samsung Securities. The survey was based on responses by 100 private bankers in Samsung Securities. The respondents‘ answers reflected thoughts of HNWIs -- who hold over 100 million won ($92,700) in assets individually -- according to the company. Seventy-eight of the respondents said their HNWIs picked foreig

Market May 29, 2018

South Korean financial technology startup QARASoft on Tuesday launched a beta version of an artificial intelligence-powered application to forecast financial market movements. Dubbed “Kosho,” the robo adviser app is expected to offer a prediction for the following week, based on over 400 million financial market indicators for the last 30 years, accumulated and analyzed by QARASoft’s deep learning engine, Market Dreamer. Market Dreamer offers quantitative analyses for stock mar

Market May 29, 2018

The Pohang chapter of Hyundai Steel’s labor union said Tuesday it had carried out a social responsibility program for 19 children from a local child welfare center.  Members of Hyundai Steel labor union’s Pohang chapter and children from a welfare center in a northern part of Pohang pose during a program held in Pohang. (Hyundai Steel)On May 23, the chapter’s 13 union members reached out to a child welfare center in a northern remote part of Pohang, a port city in North Gyeongsang Province. Thro

Industry May 29, 2018

South Korea’s financial regulator unveiled Monday plans to create an electronic system to track real-time foreign stock transactions and changes in outstanding stocks, in order to ramp up oversight of securities trade here amid growing public distrust in the current system and hostility against short selling. Through a newly created monitoring system, the Korea Securities Depository would cross-check the volume of outstanding stocks reported by the custodian bank of each foreign investor,

Market May 28, 2018

Amid widening market volatility on looming rate hikes at home and abroad, investors have been taking to money market accounts to park their cash. One of such accounts by Standard Chartered Bank Korea, the local unit of the London-based banking group, offer investors not only a place to park cash, but also interest rate up to 1.7 percent a year before tax. South Korea’s current base rate is 1.5 percent.Subscribers to the bank’s “SC My Zoom Account” are offered a maximum of

Market May 28, 2018

Four years have passed since Alex Tapscott, then a Canadian investment banker, published a seminal white paper that pictures bitcoin blockchain’s potential financial use free of intermediaries.The 32-page paper titled “A Bitcoin Governance Network” -- generated upon the request of his father, the author of “Wikinomics” Don Tapscott -- laid the foundation for the 368-page “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and

Market May 25, 2018

South Korea‘s stock markets erased their morning loss in the afternoon Friday, dwarfing investor concerns about US President Donald Trump’s announcement to cancel a planned summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un in June. In Friday closing, the top-tier stock market Kospi edged down 0.2 percent from Thursday‘s close, narrowing down 0.9 percent loss in early morning trade. The tech-heavy Kosdaq capped its loss to 0.6 percent, from 1.6 percent in the morning. On Kospi, foreign

Market May 25, 2018

South Korea’s central bank kept the interest rate steady at 1.5 percent for six straight months in a unanimous board decision Thursday, citing external uncertainties due to an upshot in capital influx and currency woes from emerging markets.Despite relatively solid economic growth at home and abroad, the lingering uncertainties and low inflationary pressure on the demand side here led to the “accommodative monetary policy stance,” according to the seven-member Monetary Policy B

Market May 24, 2018

US exchange operator CME Group has immediately suspended South Korea’s brokerage Hana Financial Investment‘s access to electronic trading or clearing platforms and markets run by the US derivatives exchange operator.Following the disciplinary action effective starting Tuesday, customers of the Korean securities firm are being banned from trading futures or options on CME Group’s platforms including Globex, using Hana‘s home trading system. The access will be denied for 60

Market May 23, 2018

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 15th installment. - Ed.Four cryptocurrency exchanges -- Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- have dominated South Korean trades on the highly volatile market, riding the bandwagon of futuristic technology and a wave of speculation. But with the volatile market now facing a waning public trust, cryptocurrency exchange Gopax, through its six-month operation, is seeking to

Market May 22, 2018

Banks in South Korea will see eased regulation when opening physical offshore units, as a revision bill gained approval from the Cabinet on Monday.  Following the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Banking Act, banks will be exempt from the obligation to report to authorities about the establishment of foreign offices or branches prior to the setup, unless the investment into the foreign unit exceeds 1 percent of its capital. Before the revision, banks were required to submit a repor

Market May 21, 2018

Companies listed on South Korea’s top-tier stock market Kospi saw their debt-to-capital ratio come to 111.4 percent in 2017, up 0.9 percentage point on-year, data showed Monday. The combined amount of liabilities of Kospi-listed firms reached 1,182.8 trillion won ($1.1 trillion), up 2.5 percent compared to a year prior, whereas the volume of capital came to 1,061.9 trillion won, up 1.7 percent, according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange.The market operator analyzed data on 598 firms

Market May 21, 2018

The Daejeon Metropolitan City Government offered to partner with US computer software company Adobe Systems, seeking to bolster the digital literacy of its citizens, officials said Sunday.Han Sun-hee, director-general of the city government’s science and economy bureau, suggested Adobe establish a digital literacy education center in Daejeon, in a meeting on May 14 with Adobe Systems Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen at the US company‘s headquarters in San Jose, California.　 Han Sun-hee (third fr

Technology May 20, 2018

PureChain, a ledger-free blockchain running on an inter-device communication system, seeks to tokenize its first business that it expects to shape the “gift economy,” its developers said Thursday.Called “Colorchain,” the new decentralized platform by Singapore-headquartered Pax Datatech will have its tokens distributed using PureChain’s technology that does not require a third-party consensus or a process for user authentication.PureChain is a decentralized system p

Market May 17, 2018

The nonprofit Korea Listed Companies Association, which represents some 2,000 listed companies, urged the government Wednesday to come up with a policy to allow companies to defend against hostile moves from foreign activist shareholders.Such attempts have undermined Korean firms’ efforts to embark on long-term growth and instead lead to them sticking to short-term gains, said Jung Koo-ryong, chairman of the advocacy group, in a press conference held at the Korea Exchange headquarters on Wednesd

Industry May 16, 2018