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Dec 11, 1998
- Reform of Accounting Standards in Korea
- 1. BackgroundSince the financial crisis evolved in 1997, there have been numerous demands for the reform of accounting and auditing practices in Korea. Among others, the IMF and World Bank required the Korean government to upgrade accounting standards and disclosure rules to meet international practices. To respond to these calls, in March 1998 the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) organized the Special Committee and charged it with the responsibility of reviewing current accounting and auditing systems and engineering the measures to reform the systems. After thorough reviews of the current systems and surveys of comments and suggestions of foreign institutions which have keen interests in Korean economy, the Special Committee recommended several reform measures including upgrading financial accounting standards to the level of international standards.Based on the Special Committee's recommendations and the agreements between the Korean government and the World bank, the FSC has undertaken the reform of accounting standards since May 1998. The reform process has been proceeded in several areas: (1) revision of financial accounting standards that are primary sources of Korean generally accepted accounting principles, (2) establishment of accounting standards for financial institutions, and (3) establishment of accounting standards for combined financial statements.In the reform process, the FSC’s primary goal was to achieve transparency, credibility and international comparability of Korean accounting standards. Hence, the FSC set as benchmarks the International Accounting Standards (hereafter "IAS") established by the International Accounting Standards Committee. The IAS, however, do not address all the accounting issues. Therefore, the US accounting standards were used as an alternative benchmark where the IAS do not exist or are not sufficient to address particular accounting issues. Employing the IAS or US standards as benchmarks made the revised financia
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Dec 07, 1998
- Agreement for the Restructuring of the Top 5 Chaebol
- Premise1. Ever since the outbreak of the economic crisis of a year ago, our economy concentrated its heart and soul toward quickly pulling itself out of the turmoil. Special attention was devoted to fixing the fundamental causes that brought about the economic crisis, which called for the overhaul of financial, corporate, labor and public sectors as well as implementation of relevant deregulation and foreign investment liberalization measures.Owing to the facilitated and bold implementation of financial sector restructuring, the financial market has been stabilized. On top of this, we now have a more harmonized labor-management relationship backed by a more flexible labor market, a more reliable social safety net, and with the privatization of the public sector as well as management improvement, public sector reform has also come a long way.2. Building on the 5 major principles for corporate restructuring agreed upon between president-elect Kim Dae-Jung and representatives of the 5 leading chaebol on January 13, 1998, corporate restructuring has also been pursued continuously. Legislative measures toward enhancing transparency of corporate management, unwinding of cross guarantees, strengthening of accountability of controlling shareholders and management have been completed.Furthermore, by lifting tax impediments, introducing the foreign investment inducement law, and fully opening the MA market to foreigners, the necessary institutional framework to facilitate restructuring is in place. 3. Riding on such institutional support, a large number of corporates were sold-off, exited, or reborn as new corporates. However, unfortunate to us all, in many instances existing management had to be replaced and unemployment rose significantly, causing economic players to suffer tremendous pain along the way. The top 5 chaebol are commended for their efforts toward pushing corporate restructuring. Especially they have derived voluntary business restructuring plan for 7 indus
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Dec 04, 1998
- Progress and Prospects of Economic Reform in Korea
- Mr. Chairman,Distinguished Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen:It is my honor and pleasure to have this opportunity to share my thoughts on what Korea has accomplished since the crisis and remaining tasks for reforming our economy.About a year has passed since the crisis broke out in Korea, but the situation in Korea is already quite different. Usable foreign reserves have significantly increased to over 45 billion dollars and the composition of foreign debts has improved as well.Recently, the international community including IMF and the World Bank, praised impressive progress that Korea has made and foreign investors are coming back.Although I fully understand that there remains a lot more work to be done, let me very cautiously mention three major points which led such a remarkable progress.First, the reform has been driven by new leadership which is free from previous misconduct. The newly elected president Kim Dae Jung pledged full commitment to the market principle and made series of crucial decisions on how to react, what to do and what to not do.The newly organized Financial Supervisory Commission, headed by reform minded persons who are well equipped with theories and practices of both financial and corporate sectors but nothing to do with previous misbehavior, took charge of the whole process.Second, the restructuring program has been based upon internationally well recognized criteria and procedures. The problem faced and still facing is not cyclical but structural.Hence, we strictly excluded case by case approach but pursue full-scale fundamental reform.Moreover, we targeted the core of the problem first. For example, resolution of ailing banks was our top priority.Another example of sticking to the principle is the confirmation of the government not to handover Seoul and Korea First Bank to domestic chaebols, although it may restrict the eligibility for potential bidders and make the sale process more difficult.Finally and most importantly, the national consens
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Oct 28, 1998
- Luncheon address by FSC chairman H.J.Lee
- President Werner D. Graessle of the EU Chamber of Commerce, President Jeffrey Jones of AmCham, Distinguished Guests, and Ladies and Gentlemen:I am glad to have this unique opportunity to talk about the progress in financial and corporate restructuring and future tasks.It is less than a year since the crisis broke out in Korea, but the situation in this country is already quite different, although difficulties are not yet over. Recently the international community including IMF and the World Bank highly praised the impressive progress Korea has achieved and foreign investors are coming back to Korea.After the outbreak of the crisis last December, the Government had to make crucial decisions on how to react, what to do and what not to do. Let me mention four points. First, the Government will not bail out non-viable financial institutions. Fiscal support will be provided to viable institutions only as a way to expedite their rehabilitation, but conditional upon the institutions' comprehensive self-rescue efforts and accountable loss-sharing to prevent moral hazard.Second, institutional settings including prudential regulation and accounting rules have to be strengthened by fully incorporating global standards. Whatever the ultimate causes are, there is no denying that the magnitude of current crisis was amplified by capacity-driven policy, loose market discipline and lack of transparency. Also, before the crisis, the scope of regulations for financial institutions was not adequate and the degree of its implementation did not comply with international standards. Third, corporate restructuring has to be pursued in tandem with financial restructuring. The NPL burden at financial institutions will not be lessened and sound management cannot be secured, unless the problem of corporate failures is solved. Therefore, non-viable corporates that are not able to make profits even under normal financial conditions are to be exited. On the other hand, viable corporates will recei
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Oct 26, 1998
- Standards for the combined financial statements
- 1. Introduction of the Combined Financial StatementsThe Korean accounting standards require firms that have subsidiaries to prepare consolidated financial statements. However, because of the unique chaebol ownership structure in Korea, several consolidated financial statements are issued within the same chaebol. Further, a parent-subsidiary relationship exists when a company as the largest shareholder directly or indirectly owns more than 30% of another companys voting interest. In contrast, an affiliate is any company that belongs to a chaebol regardless of the ownership relation. Therefore, an affiliate that is not a subsidiary of another affiliate is excluded from consolidated financial statements although it is under the common control of the chaebol. In order to address these issues, the Korean Congress passed a bill that requires combined financial statements for chaebols for fiscal years starting from January 1, 1999. The objectives of combined financial statements are to present financial positions, operating results, and cash flows of chaebols as a whole under the assumption that chaebol-affiliated companies constitute a single economic entity (the difference between consolidated financial statements and combined financial statements is depicted in figure 1).2. Due ProcessThe Standards for the combined financial statements has been promulgated after several deliberations of the Korea Financial Accounting Standards Committee (KFASC) and solicitations of opinions from interested parties. The KFASC comprising 11 members from academia, businesses, accountants, and government deliberated on the standard at each step of the following due process.- KFASC's deliberation on an action plan : January 1998- Discussion memorandum drafted: May 1998A Steering Committee was formed as an advisory committee in the process of drafting the discussion memorandum.- KFASC's deliberation on the discussion memorandum: end of May 1998- Exposure Draft released for public comments: Au
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Oct 26, 1998
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Oct 26, 1998
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Sep 28, 1998
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Sep 15, 1998
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Sep 11, 1998
- Merger between the Kookmin & the Korea Long Term Credit bank
- 1. The Highlight of the MergerKookmin Bank (“Kookmin”) and Korea Long Term Credit Bank (“KLB”) exchanged the Memorandum of Understanding and formally announced to proceed with the merger of the two banks at the convention center in the Korea Federation of Banks building on September 11, 1998.Mr. Dal-Ho Song, the President of Kookmin, and Mr. Sei Jong Oh, the President of KLB announced that the two banks have agreed on a voluntary merger to become a “super bank” which will overcome the adverse changes in the current environment surrounding Korean banking industry as well as play a pivotal role in the future economy of Korea.Kookmin and KLB have been taking up a leading position in retail consumer banking and wholesale corporate banking, respectively. Therefore, no other domestic consolidation could bring about greater synergy effect than the merger between these two banks.The two banks made a statement that, even after the merger, they will continue their efforts to seek for a strategic alliance with foreign partners in order not only to solidify their capital base but to enhance their operations system to an advanced one. They also stated that they will endeavor to minimize the government’s financial assistance for the financial restructuring by maximizing the size of the foreign capital inducement.2. A New Model of ConsolidationThe merger between Kookmin and KLB, both of which are regarded as the best in their respective fields, is the accouplement of a retail specialist and a corporate professional. This type of merger is unprecedented in the history of Korea’s banking industry. Unlike the other merger cases which mostly aimed for achieving a cost effectiveness, the combination of Kookmin and KLB is targeted to accomplish the amalgamation of each client base and the diversification of financial products.This merger will open a new era in the history of Korean banking foretelling the birth of a super sound bank that will lead the banking industry in
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Sep 09, 1998
- Meger between the Hana Bank & the Boram Bank
- On September 8, 1998, Hana Bank ranked 11th in terms of total assets, and Boram Bank, ranked 13th, have exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding for a merger between the two banks.The merger represents birth of a leading nationwide commercial bank with a competitive position in the international banking operations. The combination of Hana Bank's top ranking profitability and Boram Bank's top ranking customer satisfaction will allow the merged bank to provide quality services to its customers with an optimal level of satisfaction by equipping the combined network of approximately 250 branches nationwide with advanced financial products and services.To effectively meet the needs of middle to high income individual customers and small to medium sized corporates, the merged bank aims to become a Financial Services Group by the year 2002 with total assets of over KRW 100 trillion and total capital of over KRW 4 trillion by setting up businesses specializing in insurance, mortgage lending, mutual fund management, discount brokerage, asset management and investment banking either through MAs or establishment of subsidiaries.During the merger process, the government will extend its full and direct support to the two banks by means of purchasing much of its bad assets, thus improving both profitability and asset quality of the merged bank. Based on this combined profitability and asset quality, the Banks will consider promotion of an additional MA, increase of capital and acquisition of foreign capitals. Not only the merged bank will further increase its capital in addition to the recent acquisition of a foreign capital from an internationally reputable institution, IFC who has become the second largest shareholder of Hana Bank, but also will effectively utilize an overall risk management procedures adopted through IFC.In line with raising its profitability, the merged bank will adopt a system in which the corporate structure will be reorganized into independent business unit
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Sep 02, 1998
- Financial Restucturing in Korea
- The government will finalize core tasks relating to financial restructuring, including the extension of fiscal support, by the end of September and starting from October will implement measures to alleviate credit crunch and pursue normalization of intermediary function of the financial market.I. Bank Restructuring Plan1. 5 Resolved Banks- Assets/Liabilities due diligence, currently under progress, will be completed by September 25, whereas financial support will be provided to banks by the end of September.o About 2,800 employees, approximately 32% of acquired bank's total employees amounting to 8,950 (a total of 10,260 including temporary employees) will be taken over by the acquiring banks.¡¤ As of August 31, 1,517 employees of the acquired banks have signed employment contracts with acquiring banks.2. 7 Conditionally Approved Banks- Commercial Bank of Korea, Hanil Banko These 2 banks have submitted a merger application to FSC on August 25 and upon conclusion of related procedures, including announcement on request for creditors' discontent application, a shareholders' general meeting will be held for approval of merger on September 30.o Fiscal support will be provided for in order to prevent existing problems carrying over to the merged bank and to maximize synergy effect.¡¤ Management improvement measures which will have the effect of bringing productivity and earning potential of the merged bank up to that of advanced countries' banks will be required as a condition for fiscal support (productivity parameter represented by operational revenue per employee is to be utilized when setting level of layoffs required).- Cho Hung Bank, Korea Exchange Banko 2 banks are required to submit revised implementation plans including more detailed recapitalization and merger plans by August 31.o The bank(s) will be required to submit a memorandum indicating intention of dismissal of all bank management in the event foreign capital inducement or merger plans are not realiz
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Jul 31, 1998
- Merger between the Commercial Bank of Korea & the Hanil Bank
- On September 8, 1998, Hana Bank ranked 11th in terms of total assets, and Boram Bank, ranked 13th, have exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding for a merger between the two banks.The merger represents birth of a leading nationwide commercial bank with a competitive position in the international banking operations. The combination of Hana Bank's top ranking profitability and Boram Bank's top ranking customer satisfaction will allow the merged bank to provide quality services to its customers with an optimal level of satisfaction by equipping the combined network of approximately 250 branches nationwide with advanced financial products and services.To effectively meet the needs of middle to high income individual customers and small to medium sized corporates, the merged bank aims to become a Financial Services Group by the year 2002 with total assets of over KRW 100 trillion and total capital of over KRW 4 trillion by setting up businesses specializing in insurance, mortgage lending, mutual fund management, discount brokerage, asset management and investment banking either through MAs or establishment of subsidiaries.During the merger process, the government will extend its full and direct support to the two banks by means of purchasing much of its bad assets, thus improving both profitability and asset quality of the merged bank. Based on this combined profitability and asset quality, the Banks will consider promotion of an additional MA, increase of capital and acquisition of foreign capitals. Not only the merged bank will further increase its capital in addition to the recent acquisition of a foreign capital from an internationally reputable institution, IFC who has become the second largest shareholder of Hana Bank, but also will effectively utilize an overall risk management procedures adopted through IFC.In line with raising its profitability, the merged bank will adopt a system in which the corporate structure will be reorganized into independent business unit
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Jul 01, 1998
- Strengthening of Prudential Supervision of Foreign Exchange
- 1. BackgroundRisks accompanying foreign exchange operations are mounting in Korea due to increased multi-national transactions, financial deregulation, tougher competition among financial institutions and the introduction of derivatives.However, foreign exchange management by the Foreign Exchange Management Act has been enforced mainly through focusing on aspects of the management of external assets and liabilities.○ The supervision of foreign exchange operations, executed mainly by the central bank, has given more weight to the stability of the foreign exchange market and monetary policy, rather than to assuring the soundness of commercial banks.〓 The supervisory function was not sufficient to manage the various risks, which may arise in foreign exchange operations, such as exchange risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, market risk, etc..○ It is necessary to strengthen prudential supervision over banks' foreign exchange operations, in order to prevent recurrence of the foreign exchange crisis through efficient management of the risks inherent in foreign exchange operations.2. Contents◎ In order to efficiently manage various risks in foreign exchange operations, the Banking Supervisory Authority is taking comprehensive measures.○ The foreign currency liquidity regulation system will be modified to enforce the Maturity Mismatches(GAP) Regulation, as well as the Foreign Currency Liquidity Ratio Regulation.○ The banks will set up and manage the limits on their foreign exchange operations under the Guidelines of the Banking Supervisory Authority.○ The Banking Supervisory Authority is also strengthening its off-site surveillance by improving banks' reporting systems, in order to facilitate risk evaluation and assure the soundness of foreign exchange operations in commercial banks.1) Strengthening of supervision on liquidity riskIntroduction of the Maturity Mismatches(GAP) Regulation○ After dividing assets and liabilities into 7 buckets1) according to their r
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Jun 29, 1998
- FSC Press Release upon Ailing Bank Resolution
- ■ Final assessment results of the Bank Appraisal Committee were reported to the Financial Supervisory Commission on June 28, 1998. A special meeting of the Financial Supervisory Commission was held at 7:00 am on June 29, 1998 and utilizing input from the committee decided the following;○Banks whose rehabilitation plans are deemed feasible, such as Cho Hung Bank, Commercial Bank of Korea, Hanil Bank, Korea Exchange Bank, Peace Bank of Korea, Kangwon Bank and Chungbuk Bank each received conditional approval of rehabilitation plan and are required to submit an implementation plan containing strong management improvement plans by the end of July'○Banks whose rehabilitation plans are deemed not feasible, such as Dong Hwa Bank, Dongnam Bank, Dae Dong Bank, Chung Chong Bank and Kyungki Bank each received disapproval of rehabilitation plan and will have to transfer their assets and liabilities to Shinhan Bank, Housing Commercial Bank, Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, Koram Bank, respectively■The government will exert utmost effort in minimizing clients' inconveniences during the course of bank resolution by implementing following measuresNot only payment settlement and deposit repayment businesses but also businesses of overdraft and bill discount will be carried out as normalIn order to restore financial market stability as soon as possible, liquidity situation will be improved and credit extention toward corporate clients of resolved banks will be enhanced1. Progress to-date■Submission of rehabilitation plans (April 30, 1998)○12 banks with BIS ratio that fell short of 8% as of December 1997 were required to submit rehabilitation plans■Accounting firms' evaluation on rehabilitation plans (May 1 - June 8, 1998)○In accordance to evaluation criteria agreed upon with the IBRD, the feasibility of the following elements were evaluated - capital adequacy, recapitalization plan, asset quality classification, reduction plan for risky assets, cost reduction scheme, managemen
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Jun 29, 1998
- FSC Chairman`s Announcement Upon Bank Resolution
- Our country as a whole has brought out all its wisdom to cope with the recent foreign exchange crisis. However, we continue to witness considerable weaknesses in our financial and corporate sectors and there are still signs of structural problems embedded in our system. As a result, we are currently in a liquidity crunch and the economy has yet to turn around.As a way to break away from structural impediments and vicious circle of degradation and to ultimately strengthen economic fundamentals, the government with unprecedented commitment has underwent structural reform with key focus on the financial and corporate sectors restructuring.On June 18th, 55 corporations were identified as non-viable in accordance to the assessments conducted by creditor banks. Today based on bank appraisal committee's evaluation of rehabilitation plans submitted by each bank, I would like to unveil the results as follows.Cho Hung Bank, Commercial Bank of Korea, Hanil Bank, Korea Exchange Bank, Peace Bank of Korea, Kangwon Bank, Chungbuk Bank, a total of 7 banks will be subject to conditional approval on its rehabilitation plan and will have to prepare and submit implementation plans including strong reformative actions and recapitalization commitments by the end of July. After that in case this plan is disapproved or not implemented to a satisfactory level a business transfer or merger order will be imposed on the bank.Banks such as Dong Hwa Bank, Dongnam Bank, Dae Dong Bank, Chung Chong Bank and Kyungki Bank whose rehabilitation plans were disapproved will be ordered to have its assets and liabilities transferred to Shinhan Bank, Housing Commercial Bank, Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, Koram Bank, respectively.Throughout this transitional process the government will exercise its utmost effort to protect bank savings and ensure that customers will be able to attend business at these banks as usual.To this end, despite of the fact that the resolved bank's good assets and liabilities will be tran
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May 21, 1998
