South Korea

South Korea's finance minister stepped up warnings on Monday that the government is ready to act to counter any renewed volatility in currency markets after the won has extended declines against the dollar to hit the lowest in a year and a half, Reuters reported. "We will swiftly act according to contingency plans and will play any necessary role to respond to any excessive volatility in forex and other financial markets," Choi Sang-mok said at a policy meeting urgently scheduled to discuss escalating tensions in the Middle East.

South Korea’s central bank held its base rate steady for a 10th consecutive time, as widely expected, keeping its guard up against still-stubborn inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Korea’s decision signals that it is in no rush to ease policy, especially at a time when expectations for the U.S. possible rate cut in June are receding after hotter-than-expected consumer inflation earlier this week. The BOK on Friday kept its benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at 3.50%, a 15-year high set in January 2023.

South Korea’s headline inflation topped 3% for a second consecutive month in March, remaining sticky and well above the central bank’s 2% target, the Wall Street Journal reported. The latest inflation print, which came ahead of the Bank of Korea’s rate-decision meeting next week, is likely to bolster the bank’s current stance to not rush for easing but stand pat for now before it starts rate cuts. The benchmark consumer-price index rose 3.1% from a year earlier, the same pace as in February, the country’s statistics office said on Tuesday.

South Korea’s financial watchdog urged lenders to expand financial support for troubled builders as concerns grow over risks from distressed real estate projects, Bloomberg News reported. The number of project finance sites seeing “significantly worsening profitability” is rising due to high interest rates and construction costs, Lee Bokhyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said in a Thursday meeting with financial and construction firms.

An appeals court in Montenegro on Wednesday confirmed that a South Korean mogul known as “the cryptocurrency king” will be handed over to his native country, the Associated Press reported. Both South Korea and the U.S. had requested Do Kwon’s extradition from Montenegro. A Montenegrin court initially decided he should be handed over to the U.S. but that ruling was later overturned in favor of South Korea. The Appeals Court of Montenegro approved an earlier ruling by the High Court to extradite Kwon to South Korea rather than the United States, a statement said.

Disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon should be extradited to the U.S. to face trial on fraud charges, rather than to his native South Korea, a court in the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro has ruled, the Wall Street Journal reported. Kwon’s lawyers have three days to appeal the ruling by the High Court in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, a spokeswoman for the court said Wednesday. The appeals court will have the final word in the case, she added. A local lawyer for Kwon, Goran Rodić, called the ruling illegal and pledged to appeal.

Three South Korean financial firms set aside almost $560 million combined to cover potential losses amid wider regulator concerns about real estate exposure as valuations continue to fall, Bloomberg News reported. Woori Financial Group Inc. booked a provision of 525 billion won ($396 million) in the fourth quarter after a “comprehensive examination on vulnerable areas” such as property, Vice President Sung-Wook Lee said on a call with analysts.

Shares of South Korean financial stocks fell after an industry watchdog said banks and other firms in the sector will face “stern measures” if they charge excessive interest rates or engage in other misconduct, Bloomberg News reported. “Starting this year, financial companies evading responsibility by disregarding customers’ profit or not recognizing the losses that they have to will face stern measures and even risk getting kicked out from the market,” Lee Bokhyun, the Financial Supervisory Service’s governor, said in a prepared statement Monday to address its 2024 agenda.

South Korea will take steps to make its financial markets more investor friendly and attractive to foreigners, the financial regulator said on Monday, Reuters reported. The comments by vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Kim So-young, came at a meeting with foreign financial firms in Seoul to discuss ways of helping them expand business, in the wake of November's ban on short-selling. "The government will make various efforts to globalise the financial industry, especially to build a more favourable environment for foreign financial firms," Kim said.

A South Korean bankruptcy court judge has called on the government to bolster regulation in the crypto industry, claiming investors need more protection, CryptoNews.com reported. Per Newsis, the claims were made by Judge Lee Seok-jun, of the Seoul Bankruptcy Court. Lee wrote a paper on “regulations intended to protect virtual asset investors.” The paper was published in the most recent issue of the Court of Korea’s academic journal Sabeub. A slew of crypto-related legal changes come into force in July this year when the Virtual Asset User Protection Act becomes law.