Saudi Arabia’s two major public investment funds have arrived in South Korea to look for local startups to add to their portfolios, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday. Jada, a fund-of-funds set up by Saudi sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund, and fellow state-run Saudi Venture Capital will cooperate with the Seoul government to find Korean “unicorns” or startup companies with a value of over $1 billion to invest in. The investment funds arrived in Seoul on

Market Sept. 20, 2022

The Upbit Developer Conference, the nation's largest blockchain developer conference, will be back in person this year after two years of pandemic disruptions. According to Dunamu, the operator of South Korean crypto exchange Upbit, on Tuesday, the 2022 UDC will be held in Busan from Sept. 22 to 23, with 50 speakers and over 3,000 attendees set to join the event. Launched in 2018, the annual gathering has attracted more than 617 companies and 15,100 visitors. This year’s event will cove

Market Sept. 20, 2022

The sharply weakening value of the Korean currency has raised alarms among onlookers in recent weeks as it could lead to higher trade deficit, taking a toll on the nation’s economy, sources said Monday. The Korean won was trading at 1,391.9 won against the US dollar around 2 p.m. on Monday, inching toward the symbolic 1,400 won-mark that had been only surpassed during past financial crises. The local currency fell below 1,400 won against the US greenback in December 1997 and November 2008

Business Sept. 19, 2022

Some 10,000 unionized financial workers held their first strike in six years on Friday, but the rally may have backfired on them, as their absence at work had minimal impact on customer services, sources said Sunday. The Korean Financial Industry Union affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of the country’s two umbrella unions, carried out a one-day general strike and demonstration at Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul, calling for a 5.2 percent wage hike and the adopti

Market Sept. 18, 2022

Terraform Labs founder and CEO Do Kwon now may face severe punishment with South Korean prosecutors recently charging him for violating the capital market law, not just on fraud allegations, legal experts said Thursday. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office said Wednesday it has issued arrest warrants for Kwon and five others, including fellow Terraform labs founding member Nicholas Platias on charges of violating the capital market law. While a group of victims’ move to file a c

Market Sept. 15, 2022

Woori Card has partnered with K-pop singer and actor IU for a new credit card campaign to catch eyes of Generation Z and millennial customers, the firm said Thursday. The campaign dubbed “Nu I＆U” will involve social media contents featuring the singer and a credit card with a list of perks for its users. The credit card offers its users a maximum 1 percent cashback regardless of the previous month’s total purchases. The annual fee is 12,000 won ($8.61). Other benefits includ

Market Sept. 15, 2022

Hyundai Card CEO Kim Deok-hwan has resigned as chief executive at one of the largest credit card issuers in South Korea just one year after he was appointed, regulatory filings showed Tuesday. Kim officially stepped down on Friday with Hyundai Card citing “personal reasons” behind his resignation. No further elaboration was given. A local media outlet reported that Kim was recently “sued by his secretary." Born in 1972, Kim was known as the youngest CEO in the Korea cre

Business Sept. 13, 2022

South Korean prosecutors are considering whether to view the troubled cryptocurrency luna as a security, a move which could put the coin developers and those complicit under scrutiny for not only fraud, but also for violations of the Capital Markets Act. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office’s Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team has met with crypto experts and financial authorities to review if luna can be categorized as a security, the prosecution said Tuesda

Market Sept. 13, 2022

South Korea’s KB Financial Group said Tuesday it has recently opened the nation’s largest premium private banking branch in Seoul in a bid to provide a fuller range of services to its wealthy clients. The seven-story building, named after the bank’s recently launched premium banking service “KB Gold ＆ Wise the First,” is located in Seoul's posh district of Apgujeong. The floor space, themed on books and art, consists of 15 consulting rooms and 1,400 vaults. At the

Market Sept. 13, 2022

Shin Jeong-eum, a 61-year-old Seoulite, remembers her childhood when her family was delighted with beef wrapped in a simple paper package and a carton of eggs held together by straw as Chuseok gifts. As for her, Shin's favorite moments in the 1970s were receiving new clothes from her relatives as they celebrated the traditional mid-autumn harvest festival, honoring their ancestors. “Nowadays, it’s all about gifting luxury items and we can just send the gifts after purchasing them t

Economy Sept. 9, 2022

Apple Pay is in the final stage of talks with local credit card issuer Hyundai Card to start its Korean services by the end of this year, according to news reports on Wednesday. Apple’s digital payments service, launched in 2014, has since expanded its Asian reach, including China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. But it has struggled to enter Korea mainly due to a lack of technological infrastructure here. Most local retailers use the magnetic secure transmission technology, in which devic

Market Sept. 7, 2022

Seoul-based private equity house MBK Partners Founder and Chairman Michael Byung-ju Kim will donate $10 million to help the renovation work of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, both the firm and the museum said Wednesday. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that Michael ByungJu Kim has pledged $10 million to support the renovation of the Museum’s Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for modern and contemporary art," the Met said in an official press relea

Market Sept. 7, 2022

South Korea’s Hana Financial Group said Sunday it plans to launch a financial aid program worth 26 trillion won ($19 billion) this month that will benefit some 700,000 vulnerable members of society annually. The program named "All Happiness Connected in Hana Finance" will focus on loan extension and cutting back interest rates for 350,000 small business owners, 90,000 mortgage borrowers and 250,000 financially vulnerable members of the population, including customers in their 20s

Business Sept. 4, 2022

South Korea’s plan to launch fractional share trading this month is likely to be delayed, with authorities struggling to decide on which tax framework to adopt for the system, officials said Thursday. The struggle comes as Asia’s fourth-largest economy braces for changes in tax systems tied to stock and cryptocurrency trading. Financial authorities are currently in the process of figuring out whether to impose tax on fractional share trading as regular “stock trades” or

Business Sept. 1, 2022

An international dispute settlement body’s order Wednesday that South Korea must pay a “smaller-than-expected” $216.5 million to Lone Star may seem like a reasonable resolution to a decadelong battle between the government and the US-based private equity firm. But the verdict and the 10-year-long battle itself have revealed flaws in Korea’s financial and legal system that must be fixed before it can make the progress it aspires to, experts said. “The dispute has

Market Aug. 31, 2022