Tag: Korea Post

Korea Post, South Korea’s postal service agency, said Friday it plans to raise its purchase of stocks by as much as threefold next year as it moves to have the law on the agency’s investment ceiling on stocks revised.

If revised, Korea Post, considered the country’s second-largest institutional investor after the National Pension Corp., will increase its stock investment to as much as 6 trillion won (USD 6.5 billion) in 2008 from the current investment of about 1.8 trillion won, the agency said.

Korea Post, which manages about 60 trillion won in postal bank deposits and insurance, is banned from investing more than 5 percent of its bank assets and 20 percent of its insurance assets in stocks.

South Korea’s main stock market index has soared more than 40 percent so far this year, and briefly passed the 2,000-point milestone last week.

Postal service has been traditionally regarded as a deficit-ridden business, largely due to its enormous labor costs. The president of Korea Post does not agree.

“Korea Post has strived to stay afloat by reducing unnecessary costs, increasing productivity and expanding businesses,” said president Jung Kyung-won, who took the helm of Korea Post in April this year.

Take Korea Post`s savings and banking service called EVERRICH as an example. It has recorded a net profit of 2 trillion (USD 2.2 billion) last year. EVERRICH has a 40 trillion won savings business and a 20 trillion won insurance business, the CEO said.

In less than two months since taking office, Jung has done a lot of things and will have a lot more to do during the remainder of his tenure.

Korea Post deals with several services including postal distribution, door-to-door delivery, international express mail services, and banking and insurance services. The state-run post has about 45,000 employees — 32,000 regular employees and 13,000 part-time workers.

“Korea Post has nearly 2,800 branches across the nation so that it can render banking and insurance services to residents of remote areas such as agriculture and fisheries towns, for which most private financial institutes cannot reach,” Jung said.

Dacom, Korea¡¯s No. 3 fixedline telecom operator, will launch TV-based banking services today along with Korea Post, the country¡¯s postal service.
Clients of the state-run Korea Post who are subscribed to cable TV through the Korea Digital Media Center (KDMC) can enjoy the on-screen applications.
¡°Our TV banking services will enable TV viewers to access their accounts at Korea Post and transfer funds by remote control,¡± Dacom official Kim Min-soo said.
¡°Customers of KDMC-associated cable TV operators can enjoy the services by replacing their analogue set-top boxes with digital ones,¡± Kim said.
KDMC, the country¡¯s top digital media center, currently has 23 cable TV operators and four million subscribers under its wing across the country, People can check whether or not they are users of KDMC by examining an inscribed logo on their set-top box or monthly billing notice.