South Korea
Thailand foreign tourist arrivals fall 3.1% in first eight months of 2026
Thailand received 20,935,135 foreign tourists in the first eight months of 2026, down 3.08% year on year.
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South Korean bank lending falls as credit rules bite
Household borrowing at South Korea's major commercial banks fell for the first time in six months in September, as strict self-imposed lending restrictions by financial institutions curbed credit expansion
South Korea expands loan limits for small banks
Regulators are trying to revive credit access for riskier borrowers while preventing default spikes at major lenders. Steering extra capacity to smaller institutions lets them offset non-performing debts from high-risk loans.
Indian IT firms turn to M&As to bridge AI capability gap
India is witnessing a foundational Artificial Intelligence gap when compared to markets like the US and China. This is a topic of intense debate among market experts, policy wonks and the government.
Citi leads South Korea IB rankings after SK hynix IPO
According to data, CGMK leads the South Korea Investment Banking Wallet League table with a 16% market share.
Vietnam Techcombank weighs 15% stake sale to foreign bank
The possible transaction comes as international banks deepen their presence in Vietnam’s financial sector.
South Korean bank targets tech growth with $720mn loan
The joint deal targets small and medium-sized enterprises and venture firms in semiconductors, physical artificial intelligence and AI data centres.
South Korea's IBK sees $60mn in overseas fraud
The fraud originated at IBK's Chinese subsidiary, which partnered with a local non-bank institution for online loans.
China’s clean-energy boom runs into the limits of its power grid
China rejected an estimated 360 terawatt-hours of clean power in the six months through June, enough to supply Mexico for a year.
South Korea VS China in the race for a commercial Arctic trade route
South Korea is set to wave off a commercial container ship bound for Europe via the Arctic Ocean some time in late August, in the process testing the commercial viability of a northern sea corridor.
China’s $303bn ‘shadow trade’ exposed as apparent Asia-wide tariff dodge network
The report, carrying the somewhat dramatic title of ‘The Great Transshipment Scam’ and headed by an image of a Trojan horse style graphic, says Chinese exporters increasingly routed goods through third countries
North Korea fires 10 missiles as Seoul doubles Trump's warhead estimate
North Korea fired about 10 ballistic missiles hours after Seoul put its nuclear arsenal at up to 120 warheads, twice the number Donald Trump cites.
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South Korea's top banks post record KRW11.3 trillion profit as household-loan curbs bite
South Korea's four biggest banking groups booked a record KRW11.34 trillion net profit in the first half of 2026 even as regulators forced them to choke off lending to the country's heavily indebted households.
South Korea bank loyalty market expanding to $2.6bn
South Korea’s retail bank loyalty market will grow to $2.6bn by 2035, Spherical Insights & Consulting reported.
South Korean bank to launch Vietnam unit in September
South Korea’s Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) will officially launch its wholly foreign-owned bank in Vietnam on September 25, expanding competition in the country’s banking sector.
Cambodia's banks nurse decade-high bad loans as property slump bites
Cambodia's lenders are nursing their worst loan books in a decade, as a stalled property market squeezes a heavily dollarised banking sector already under US sanctions scrutiny.
Nato has no plan for a joint Russia-China attack, its own strategists say
The scenario that keeps Western planners awake is easy to describe and, it turns out, almost entirely unstudied: Russia moves on a Nato member while China moves on Taiwan.
South Korean banks grow Southeast Asian assets 7.1%
Major South Korean financial groups expanded total assets across their main Southeast Asian banking subsidiaries by 7.1% to KRW52.26 trillion in the first half of the year.
South Korean household credit set to top KRW2 quadrillion
Authorities have introduced a series of measures aimed at restricting housing-market speculation and limiting the growth of household borrowing. But demand for homes has remained firm.
Poland leads the world on defence worry, Finland climbs fastest since 2019
Even in the country most alarmed by it, defence is a top national concern for fewer than one person in three, a Statista survey of 32 countries has found.