Articles by Son Ji-hyoung
Son Ji-hyoung
consnow@heraldcorp.com-
Securities firms fined for failing to identify Samsung chairman assets
South Korea‘s four securities firms have been slapped with a combined 3.4 billion won ($3.2 million) in fines for their failure to identify and verify assets owned by bedridden Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee under false-name accounts, watchdogs said Thursday.The amount of the fine equals 55 percent of face value of Lee’s financial assets under the accounts not owned by the chairman, which came to 6.2 billion won as of August 1993. The four companies -- Mirae Asset Daewoo, S
Market April 12, 2018
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[Herald Interview] Banksalad relieves financial information overload
The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 13th installment. - Ed.Despite having easy access to thousands of financial products in South Korea, as one of the world’s most wired countries, consumers often find most of them irrelevant and largely fail to figure out which offers the biggest financial advantage. In a bid to simplify the myriad of choices, former owner of a street food vender Kim Tae-hoon co-foun
Market April 12, 2018
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Watchdog chides Samsung Securities for internal control void, begins inspection
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service on Monday began an investigation into Samsung Securities over it lacking internal controls to detect or correct a computational input error that caused slipshod dividend payments over 40,000 times larger than intended.The watchdog denounced the firm for its “severe” systemic flaw that enabled erroneously created virtual stocks to be traded like real assets.At a press conference Monday to unveil its plans to look into the fourth-larges
Market April 9, 2018
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Labor union to demand Korean banks close during lunch
A labor union of South Korean bank employees is demanding bank branches here close during lunchtime in forthcoming collective bargaining talks. The Korean Financial Industry Union was reported as saying Monday the proposal was designed to guarantee bank clerks get an hourlong lunch break. The KFIU is an umbrella group representing labor unions of over 30 financial institutions, including local commercial banks, provincial banks and co-ops.Korean banks, with few exceptions, are open to cust
Market April 9, 2018
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Samsung Securities fiasco exposes stock trading loophole
A South Korean brokerage mistakenly paying 1,000 shares in dividends instead of 1,000 won ($0.93) due to a computational error Friday has exposed a major loophole in the nation’s stock trading system, prompting immediate intervention by regulators.Starting Monday, the Financial Supervisory Service will launch an inspection into internal system flaws at Samsung Securities, the nation’s fourth-largest brokerage, where the incident happened last week, officials said Sunday. The authorit
Market April 8, 2018
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Short selling of Celltrion persists on Kospi
Contrary to market expectations for Celltrion to avoid short selling by moving from the second-tier Kosdaq market to the first-tier Kospi in February, the ratio of the firm’s short sellers have increased since then, data showed Thursday. Of the entire daily trading from Feb. 9 to Monday, short selling accounted for 13.8 percent. The figure saw an upshot from the yearly estimate until Feb. 9 this year, at 8.4 percent. By month, the average short selling ratio came to 13.6 percent in March,
Market April 5, 2018
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S. Korean crypto exchange CEO nabbed for embezzlement
The chief executive officer and high-ranking executives of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinnest were detained Wednesday on charges of fraud and embezzlement, according to prosecutors Thursday. This is the first time an operator of a cryptocurrency exchange in Korea has been charged.Prosecutors are seeking arrest warrants for the executives, including CEO Kim Ik-hwan, in the next two days. They are alleged to have swindled customers of digitized assets for their personal accounts, prosec
Market April 5, 2018
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Fire breaks out in LG Display facility
A fire broke out at a liquid-crystal display production facility of LG Display located in northwestern Gyeonggi Province at around 2:54 p.m. Wednesday. No casualties had been reported as of 6 p.m. LCD PRODUCTION LINE SET ON FIRE -- Smoke gushes out at a liquid crystal display production line of LG Display in northern Gyeonggi Province, due to a fire that broke out at around 2:54 p.m. on Wednesday. (Yonhap)The fire reportedly began at a construction site near an aeration tank of a wastewater disp
Industry April 4, 2018
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Foreign banks see shrinking gain from Korean branches
Foreign banks with branches in South Korea reported a decline in earnings here in 2017, on falling interest and trading income, data showed Wednesday. The 38 branches from global banks across the globe had logged a combined 680.7 billion won ($642.8 million) of net income in 2017, down 10.6 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The branches suffered a drop in interest income by 58.3 billion won, or 5.2 percent on-year. The los
Market April 4, 2018
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Progressive new FSS chief pledges consumer protection
The new governor of the Financial Supervisory Service in his inauguration speech Monday stressed a need to bolster autonomy as a regulator and enhance consumer protection. Kim Ki-sik, a new chief regulator of financial institutions who took office Monday, succeeded the role of Choe Heung-sik, who offered to step down on March 12. Ex-governor Choe‘s resignation came amid growing allegations of irregularities and abuse of power in the process of hiring entry-level employees at Hana Financial
Market April 2, 2018
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[Kosdaq Star] Time for Cafe24 to reap what it sows
This is the 53rd in a series of articles analyzing major companies traded on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market. — Ed.Profitability is undeniably the key prerequisite for a firm seeking an initial public offering on the second-tier Kosdaq market.Showing a stable income has long been the clearest signal for market operator Korea Exchange and other relevant financial authorities to predict an IPO-aspirant company’s stock performance.But with changes in the speed and characteristics of the tech-savvy mar
Industry April 1, 2018
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LG CNS to outline tech infra for next-generational govt e-procurement system
LG CNS has been selected as the most preferred bidder for a 2.2 billion won ($2.1 million) project to outline technological infrastructure for a next-generational e-procurement system by the Public Procurement Service, according to the firm Thursday.Through the bid, the information technology arm of LG Corp. will be engaged in a project for information strategy planning, a first step to revamp the state-run e-procurement system, locally dubbed “Nara Jangteo.” A screenshot of "Nara Jangteo," Kor
Technology March 29, 2018
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Marginal companies on rise: BOK
The number of marginal companies stuck in the financial quagmire with little room for profitability growth has been on the rise, further bogging down the economy as it anticipates rate hikes, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday. Korea refers to firms with interest costs outweighing operating profits for at least three consecutive years as “marginal companies.”The number of such firms in 2016 came to 3,126, taking up 14.2 percent of all Korean non-financial firms subject to external au
Market March 29, 2018
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Direct sales of Korean fashion products to Japan surge
Direct sales from Korean online fashion stores to Japan jumped nearly 60 percent in 2017 compared to 2015, data showed Wednesday. (Yonhap)The total value of fashion products sold to Japan in 2017 came to 90.5 billion won ($84.4 million), according to Statistics Korea. The figure rose 13.3 percent on-year and 57.4 percent compared to 2015. Fashion products -- encompassing clothes, shoes, bags and accessories -- took up 65.5 percent of Korea’s entire online direct sales to Japan. Of the total volu
Industry March 28, 2018
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Korea’s GNI per capita approaches $30,000: BOK
South Korea‘s nominal gross national income per capita came to $29.745 as of 2017 upon the sharpest on-year rise in six years, while the national economy grew by 3.1 percent, preliminary data by the Bank of Korea showed Wednesday. Such robust macroeconomic readings indicate Asia’s fourth largest economy is on track to be placed on par with developed nations, giving the country more room to carry out stronger measures for social welfare, according to the central bank. In 2017, Korea&l
Economy March 28, 2018
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