Journalist

Kim Pil-soo
  • KB Kookmin Bank to Contribute 17 Billion Won to Credit Guarantee Fund for 600 Billion Won in Loans
    KB Kookmin Bank to Contribute 17 Billion Won to Credit Guarantee Fund for 600 Billion Won in Loans KB Kookmin Bank said it signed two agreements with the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund to expand “productive finance” and support a return to growth, including a separate pact aimed at region-specific financing. Under the agreements, the bank will make a special contribution of 17 billion won to the fund and plans to support a total of 600 billion won in loans secured by guarantee certificates. The bank said it expects the split between a general program and a region-focused program to strengthen support for companies outside the capital area and promote more balanced regional development. The general program targets companies in new growth industries, promising startups, exporters and firms expanding overseas. The region-focused program targets the same categories as well as companies in key local industries, provided they are located outside the Seoul metropolitan area. Eligible firms also include those that received KB ESG consulting, tenants of KB’s Innovation Hub Center, and companies that hired workers through the KB Goodjob job fair. Companies covered by the general guarantee program can receive either a preferential 100% guarantee ratio for three years or support for guarantee fees from the bank totaling 1.0 percentage point over two years, at 0.5 percentage point per year. Companies under the region-focused guarantee program can receive either a preferential 100% guarantee ratio for three years or guarantee-fee support totaling 1.8 percentage points over three years, at 0.6 percentage point per year. A KB Kookmin Bank official said the agreements are intended to provide practical help to small and midsize companies expected to drive future growth while supporting balanced regional development. The official said the bank will continue expanding productive-finance support to promote sustainable growth in South Korea’s industrial ecosystem.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-03 08:54:00
  • Hana Bank, Bank of Korea and BGF Retail sign MOU for Project Hangang Phase 2 deposit tokens
    Hana Bank, Bank of Korea and BGF Retail sign MOU for Project Hangang Phase 2 deposit tokens Hana Bank said Thursday it signed a three-way memorandum of understanding with the Bank of Korea and BGF Retail at the central bank’s headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday to help advance “Project Hangang Phase 2,” a pilot program testing deposit tokens, and to promote digital finance innovation. The agreement expands a deposit-token pilot led by the Bank of Korea together with the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service. It is aimed at enabling real-world payments at CU convenience stores operated by BGF Retail using deposit tokens issued by Hana Bank. The core of Project Hangang Phase 2 is building payment infrastructure that also supports public finance innovation in line with the government’s “digital execution roadmap for national treasury subsidies,” the bank said. With interest in deposit-token trials growing across the financial sector, Hana Bank said it plans to offer payment convenience by leveraging BGF Retail’s nationwide CU network. Consumers will be able to use deposit tokens linked to Hana Bank’s flagship mobile app, Hana OneQ, at more than 19,000 CU stores nationwide via barcode or QR code payments. BGF Retail said it will optimize its existing point-of-sale system so store owners, including small business operators, can accept the payments without additional burden. The project also introduces person-to-person transfers and payment methods using biometric authentication. It includes a structure that automatically converts funds from a bank account when a token balance is insufficient, broadening functions and potential uses. Hana Bank CEO Lee Ho-sung said the partnership will help the bank lead the expansion of the deposit-token market and serve as a model for a “win-win” digital ecosystem that improves settlement efficiency for small merchants while offering consumers a new financial experience.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-03 08:48:00
  • Toss Payments Says It Has Fully Deployed Post-Quantum Cryptography in Korea
    Toss Payments Says It Has Fully Deployed Post-Quantum Cryptography in Korea Toss Payments said on April 3 it has become the first company in South Korea’s finance and information technology sectors to fully adopt post-quantum cryptography, or PQC. PQC refers to next-generation encryption based on complex mathematical algorithms designed to withstand decryption attempts even by quantum computers. Quantum computers, which use principles of quantum mechanics, are expected in theory to solve problems that would take conventional supercomputers thousands of years in just seconds. The company said it has implemented PQC at points where payment data is created and transmitted. It completed deployment across its infrastructure, including its own data center and cloud environment on AWS. A key feature, it said, is full adoption on its payment page — the main interface between merchants and consumers. When users access the Toss Payments payment page through up-to-date browsers that support PQC, including Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox, PQC is automatically activated during communication with the server. Toss Payments said the rollout comes about 10 years ahead of a master plan presented by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Science and ICT calling for major national infrastructure to transition to PQC by 2035. It also said it is the only company in the finance and IT industries to apply PQC across all customer-facing web services and application programming interface, or API, services. Shin Yong-seok, the company’s chief information security officer, said advances in quantum computing pose both a major challenge and an opportunity for financial security. “Based on the heavy responsibility of being an industry leader, Toss Payments will build a ‘future-ready security’ standard so both merchants and consumers can pay with confidence,” he said.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-03 08:12:00
  • Six Policy Lenders to Back Hyundai Motor Group’s Saemangeum Growth Hub Project
    Six Policy Lenders to Back Hyundai Motor Group’s Saemangeum Growth Hub Project Six state-run policy finance institutions, including the Korea Development Bank, are set to support Hyundai Motor Group’s project to build an innovation-led growth hub in the Saemangeum area of North Jeolla Province. Financial industry officials said Thursday that a consultative body made up of the Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korea Trade Insurance Corp. and Korea Technology Finance Corp. is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Motor Group on April 6. Hyundai Motor Group in February unveiled a large-scale plan to invest a total of 9 trillion won in Saemangeum to create a growth hub spanning artificial intelligence, robotics and energy. The plan includes an AI data center (5.8 trillion won), a robot manufacturing and parts cluster (400 billion won), a water electrolysis plant (1 trillion won), solar power generation (1.3 trillion won) and an AI hydrogen city (400 billion won). The policy finance group is expected to draw up support measures tailored to each institution’s role for the project.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-02 21:03:00
  • Toss CEO floats April Fools’ pledge to sell his home to cover rent for 100 staff
    Toss CEO floats April Fools’ pledge to sell his home to cover rent for 100 staff Lee Seung-geon, CEO of Viva Republica, operator of the finance app Toss, said he plans to sell the home he lives in under his own name and use the profit to cover the full rent and loan interest for 100 Toss employees for life. With Lee known for making bold April Fools’ Day pledges in the past, attention is focused on whether he will follow through this time. According to the industry on Tuesday, Lee wrote on an internal messenger that he would "sell the home I currently live in that I own in my personal name, and with the capital gain created through that, I want to support the full rent and interest for 100 Toss team members for life." Lee said he has long seen it as a serious problem that some people make large profits from real estate while others struggle to get by because of housing costs. He said employees who pay rent or loan interest can enter their personal information by 9 p.m. Tuesday, and winners will be selected by lottery. He added that starting this month, selected employees who submit a copy of their lease contract or loan agreement would receive full support for rent or loan interest until they own a home. Based on past cases, however, it is considered likely that the pledge may not be carried out as stated. Lee has made eye-catching April Fools’ Day promises to employees before, but some were later reduced in scale or changed in how they were implemented. In 2022, he said he would give Teslas to 20 employees, but it was changed to a plan to lend the cars to 10 employees for free for one year. Last year, he handed out hundreds of invitations for a trip to Okinawa, Japan, but support ultimately went to 100 people. A Toss official said Lee posts messages around this time each year, but it is not clear whether this is an April Fools’ Day event. The official added that, based on past examples, Lee has often used April Fools’ Day to express gratitude to colleagues.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-01 16:03:00
  • Toss Bank Confirms CEO Lee Eun-mi for Second Term Through March 2028
    Toss Bank Confirms CEO Lee Eun-mi for Second Term Through March 2028 Toss Bank said Tuesday it approved the reappointment of CEO Lee Eun-mi as originally proposed, after holding its sixth annual shareholders meeting and a board meeting Monday at its headquarters on Teheran-ro in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Her term will run through March 31, 2028. Lee took office in March 2024 and has focused on strengthening the fundamentals so the startup bank can continue what it calls “sustainable innovation.” The bank said she has built a sustainable management base around four core pillars: growth, profitability, longevity and soundness. Toss Bank said it posted its first full-year profit in 2024, Lee’s first year in office. Last year, net profit rose 111.7% from a year earlier to 96.8 billion won. “The essence of a bank is trust with customers,” Lee said. She said she will further reinforce basics such as internal controls, system stability, and financial soundness and stability to build “an unshakable foundation of trust.” She added that the bank will use technological innovation to make finance more convenient and expand access so more customers can benefit from financial services.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-01 14:42:00
  • South Korea Policy Lenders Form ‘One Team’ to Expand Productive Finance
    South Korea Policy Lenders Form ‘One Team’ to Expand Productive Finance Major South Korean policy finance institutions agreed to step up cooperation to expand what they call “productive finance,” aiming to channel more private capital into innovation industries amid overlapping risks such as rising global protectionism and instability in the Middle East. Korea Development Bank said it held a meeting on March 27 at its headquarters in Seoul with the Industrial Bank of Korea, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Korea Trade Insurance Corp. and the Korea Technology Finance Corp., and signed a memorandum of understanding. The institutions selected seven core joint initiatives to support government policy goals, focusing on expanding productive finance, strengthening cooperation with the National Growth Fund and increasing regional finance to back locally led growth. They also agreed on ways to work together. The seven areas are: expanding productive finance support and leading private finance; supporting the successful operation of the National Growth Fund; expanding regional finance for locally led growth; supporting ventures and startups through closer links among venture platforms; creating joint funds to strengthen the innovation ecosystem; building a system to foster climate tech; and boosting the competitiveness of small and midsize companies. Park Sang-jin, chairman of Korea Development Bank, said the institutions formed a “one team” to pool their capabilities and expand productive finance support “amid a complex crisis,” adding that they would serve as a catalyst for private money to flow into innovation industries and would also expand the scale of regional finance operations to drive locally led growth. Jang Min-young, president of the Industrial Bank of Korea, said combining the institutions’ expertise “organically” could help lead a successful shift toward productive finance despite domestic and external uncertainty and further strengthen the growth foundation for South Korean industries and companies. The consultative body was set up as a follow-up to instructions given in January by Lee Eok-won, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, during a work report by public and affiliated agencies under the commission. Park said that while the commission had called for three organizations to form a consultative group, he believed it was more important for all institutions involved in productive finance to gather and cooperate. Addressing criticism that projects promoted by KDB were being prioritized, Park said the basic principle was fairness. He added that he preferred reviewing regional projects first in the interest of balanced regional development, and said that could lead to misunderstandings. Separately, Park said that regarding the scale of damage to South Korean companies from the recent Hormuz situation, large companies had not prepared specific answers because they expected it to end quickly, but were now tallying losses and appeared likely to request financial support.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-03-27 14:30:11
  • K Bank Posts 112.6 Billion Won Net Profit in 2025, Targets 18 Million Customers
    K Bank Posts 112.6 Billion Won Net Profit in 2025, Targets 18 Million Customers K Bank said in a regulatory filing on the 23rd that it posted 112.6 billion won ($112.6 billion won) in net profit last year. The figure was down 12% from a year earlier, but the bank recorded net profit above 100 billion won for a second straight year. The bank said it added 2.78 million new customers last year, bringing its total to 15.53 million. As of the end of last year, K Bank’s deposit balance stood at 28.43 trillion won. Crypto-asset deposits fell amid a weaker asset market, while retail deposits rose 2.42 trillion won from a year earlier. Growth was led by its “Plus Box” parking account, which was revamped in September 2024, including applying interest rates to amounts above 50 million won. Retail demand deposits increased 2.83 trillion won last year, lifting the share of demand deposits in retail funding to 65.8% at year-end from 59.5% at the end of 2024. Loans totaled 18.38 trillion won at the end of last year, up 13% from 16.27 trillion won at the end of 2024. Lending to sole proprietors drove the increase, with the balance rising to 2.31 trillion won from 1.15 trillion won. Loans backed by real estate for sole proprietors jumped to 560 billion won from 70 billion won. Net interest income fell 7.8% to 444.2 billion won from 481.5 billion won a year earlier. The bank said interest revenue improved as loans and earning assets grew, but funding costs rose, including due to higher fee rates tied to crypto-asset deposits. Noninterest income rose about 40% to 113.3 billion won from 80.9 billion won, helped by gains on bond sales, higher investment returns including from money market funds, and the start of platform advertising revenue. Asset quality also improved, the bank said. Its delinquency rate fell to 0.60% at year-end from 0.90% at the end of 2024, while the ratio of substandard or lower loans eased to 0.57% from 0.82%. The annual credit cost ratio improved to 1.22% from 1.59% a year earlier. K Bank said it aims to expand its customer base to 18 million this year and focus on what it called three future growth engines: its platform business, expanded corporate lending, and areas including artificial intelligence and digital assets. Chief Executive Choi Woo-hyung said, “This year will be a turning point for K Bank to take another step forward,” adding that the bank will seek to grow into a leading financial platform for more customers, provide more opportunities and benefits to sole proprietor clients, and lead innovation in AI and digital assets.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-03-23 18:36:00
  • Kakao Pay Confirms CEO Shin Won-geun’s Reappointment, Pledges AI Shift and ‘Next Finance’ Push
    Kakao Pay Confirms CEO Shin Won-geun’s Reappointment, Pledges AI Shift and ‘Next Finance’ Push Kakao Pay said it confirmed the reappointment of CEO Shin Won-geun at its annual shareholders meeting held on the 23rd. The company said Shin’s new term will focus on expanding its existing businesses while accelerating a shift to artificial intelligence, improving user experience and building out a digital-asset ecosystem as part of its next-generation finance vision. Shin first took office as Kakao Pay’s CEO in March 2022 and had his term extended in March 2024 in recognition of his management performance, the company said. During his tenure, Kakao Pay said it completed its blueprint for a “daily-life finance platform,” grew both scale and fundamentals, and posted its first annual profit on a consolidated basis last year. Building on fintech know-how accumulated over the past four years, Kakao Pay said it will broaden existing business areas and overhaul UX to deliver full-scale “hyper-personalized” services. It also said it will move toward AI-based services and advance its “Next Finance” initiative to respond to a next-generation financial environment built around digital assets. In its core businesses, the company said it will continue to pursue vertical expansion, expand data-related businesses and strengthen platform competitiveness based on traffic. Kakao Pay said it also aims to make its future-finance vision a reality by securing capabilities to offer a completely new financial experience as technology reshapes the industry. It said it will pursue an internal shift to AI services, actively seek AI-centered synergy opportunities within the Kakao group, and prepare for next-generation digital-asset businesses centered on a “super wallet,” including stablecoins, blockchain and tokenized securities (STO). “Agentic AI is triggering the financial industry’s AX (AI transformation) through autonomous payments, embedded finance and hyper-personalization, while on-chain finance such as stablecoins is reshaping global settlement infrastructure,” Shin said. He added that the financial industry is at an inflection point that will determine future winners and losers, and said Kakao Pay will pursue its mission of “creating beneficial finance for users through technology” by combining an early AI shift and its “Next Finance” growth strategy with UX innovation that delivers new financial experiences.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-03-23 17:03:00
  • Shinhan Bank Nominates Two New Outside Director Candidates to Bolster Legal, ICT Expertise
    Shinhan Bank Nominates Two New Outside Director Candidates to Bolster Legal, ICT Expertise Shinhan Bank’s executive candidate recommendation committee said it recommended five candidates for outside director positions at a meeting held on the 20th. Attorney Yoon Jun and Chae Eun-mi, an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Korea University, were selected as new outside director candidates for two-year terms. The committee said Yoon is a legal expert who previously served as chief judge of the Seoul High Court and has experience in consumer protection-related work. It said Chae is expected to strengthen the board’s expertise in areas such as digital and information and communications technology strategy and analysis of new businesses. Incumbent outside directors Ham Jun-ho, Yamamoto Shinji and Kim Seong-nam were recommended for reappointment for one-year terms.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-03-20 17:57:00