Korea

The FSC said it plans to approve two more Internet-only banks next year, a day after a bill passes allowing non-financial firms to boost their ownership stakes in such banks.

Nine designated fintech firms will be allowed to provide services to customers for up to two years, testing their services as agents of partnering financial institutions.

Korea Exchange members can now directly market options on local indexes and 31 individual stocks to US institutional investors.

Investors will be allowed to buy a maximum of 1% of a company's total shares starting 17 September, a rule aimed at preventing error trades.

FSS governor told fintech firms the regulator is considering machine readable regulation and automated data analysis systems to better detect and investigate financial crimes.

Prosecutors allege that four bank employees, two of which are under arrest, gave preferential treatment to the children of influential former Shinhan bank executives, regulatory officials and senior bureaucrats.

Regulatory authorities will conduct on-site inspection to ensure that banks are in compliance with tighter household lending requirements and that business loans have not been used to purchase houses in 15 wards of Seoul.

Developed in collaboration with the Korea Federation of Banks, BankSign allows customers to use multiple banks’ mobile apps, once a co-verification certificate is obtained from a single bank.

The public expressed concern through online petitions to the President's office over Merrill Lynch's high frequency trading operations in Seoul.

Korean brokerages don’t have adequate internal systems that could prevent fat-finger errors like those that affected Samsung Securities in April.