Financials Up as Rates Hold Steady - Financials Roundup

Banks, lenders and other financial companies ticked up as Treasury rates held near recent highs. The price of bitcoin and other digital currencies slid after a top official from South Korea said the government is preparing a bill to ban the trading of cryptocurrencies on exchanges, stepping up its efforts to curb speculation. The price of bitcoin has sky-rocketed on exchanges worldwide for more than a year, but the moves on South Korean exchanges have been even bigger, leading to what traders have dubbed the "kimchi premium." South Korean Minister of Justice Park Sang-ki raised the prospect of a ban days after the country's financial regulator started inspecting some of South Korea's largest financial institutions that help facilitate digital-currency trading. Money-wiring service MoneyGram International struck a deal with Ripple, a firm that promotes a bitcoin-like digital currency known as XRP, to incorporate the technology into its systems. That caused a surge in the share price of Moneygram and in the price of the XRP cryptocurrency.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 11, 2018 16:18 ET (21:18 GMT)