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Apr 22, 2024
- Taskforce on ESG Finance Holds Meeting and Discusses Key Details of ESG Disclosure Standards
- The Financial Services Commission held the 4th taskforce meeting on ESG (environmental, social and governance) finance with related ministries, industry groups, investors, and experts on April 22 to have discussions on details of an open draft on domestic ESG disclosure standards. FSC Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung presided over the meeting and outlined basic principles and key details of the draft standards. A Summary of Vice Chairmans Remarks First, this open draft on domestic ESG disclosure standards is consistent with global standards as it amply takes into account cases from overseas. In this regard, the draft standards have been formulated to ensure interoperability with the ESG disclosure standards of other major countries to minimize the burden of redundant disclosure duties for domestic businesses. In addition, the draft standards will mandate climate-related disclosures first, while keeping the disclosure of information on other non-climate-related ESG elements on a voluntary basis. Second, the draft standards have been prepared to provide quality information to investors. Instead of simply requiring businesses to list up relevant data on climate risks and opportunities, the draft standards will actually promote behavioral change from businesses through a more systematic provision of information disclosures based on important categories, such as governance structure, strategy, risk management process, and so on. Third, the draft standards also take into account the needs of enterprises and ensure that there is no excessive burden placed on them. Considering domestic firms capabilities and level of preparedness, authorities will provide detailed guidelines and allow companies to disclose qualitative informationinstead of quantitative datafor certain types of indicators prone to a large degree of subjectivity in their measurement. This open draft on ESG disclosure standards also takes into consideration the need for our economy to address some of the newly emergi
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Apr 01, 2024
- KRW11 Trillion-plus in Corporate Financing Support from the Banking Sector to be Provided to MMEs and SMEs
- The Financial Services Commission announced that corporate financing support programs for middle market enterprises (MMEs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will begin to be provided from the banking sector from April 1. This is a part of the total KRW76 trillion-plus corporate financing measures announced in last February, made available by close cooperation between policy financial institutions and five major commercial banks. First, the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and five major commercial banks will provide KRW6 trillion in low interest rate loans exclusively for MMEs that are attempting to enter into new growth sectors and expand their business operation. Qualified MMEs are eligible to receive up to KRW150 billion per business for facilities investment, funding for research and development, and operating costs with the benefit of 1%p reduction in interest rates. Qualified MMEs should meet the industry and/or production requirement specified by the common criteria for innovative growth, which lay out specific industry areas and products qualified for policy funding support for innovative growth. Second, the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and five major commercial banks will provide about KRW5 trillion in interest support program for SMEs that are operating on a normal financial condition but are having difficulties with heavy interest burdens. In this regard, qualified SMEsthose with loans with interest rates of more than 5.0 percentare eligible to receive up to 5 percent reduction in interest rates for one year. When qualified SMEs apply for this interest support program with their lenders, their qualification will be verified by the lender, and they can choose to receive the interest reduction benefit for one year either immediately or from the time of refinancing. Third, the prompt liquidity support program made available for SMEs from the banking sector will be operated on an expanded basis. The liquidity support program was first introduced by
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Mar 27, 2024
- Government to Ensure Provision of Financial Support for Vulnerable Sectors
- The Financial Services Commission announced the governments plan to ensure provision of financial support intended to help improve conditions for vulnerable sectors on March 27. To reduce the financing burden of SMEs and small merchants and boost their operating conditions, the following measures have been prepared. First, for SMEs, KRW41.6 trillion in funding support will begin to be provided from April, and additional guarantee support (KRW1.7 trillion) for small merchants will also be sought after through coordination between related ministries. Second, banks will continue to work on making sure that their own interest refund programs for small merchants amounting to about KRW1.5 trillion are being implemented seamlessly. Interest refunds from nonbanks, amounting to about KRW300 billion, will begin to be paid out from the end of March. Borrowers with high interest rate loans (7% or higher interest rates) will have opportunities to switch to lower interest rate loans. In addition, the banking sector plans to make available KRW600 billion more in financing support for vulnerable groups from April. Banks will make contributions to relevant agencies in support for lower income households and small merchants. Third, there will be steady provision of support for small merchants to help them recover and regain footing through debt adjustment (New Start Fund) and credit recovery support. As of the end of February 2024, about 175,000 individuals have already benefited from this credit recovery support program, with their credit scores increased by an average of 102 points. To ensure stability in the housing market, the government will bolster support for project financed real estate development projects and actively seek to resolve difficulties of construction firms through a private-public joint effort. First, additional support in the form of loan guarantees amounting to a total of KRW9 trillion is newly planned for property developments under PF loans (KRW5 trillion) a
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Feb 27, 2024
- FSC Vice Chairman Holds Investor Relations in Singapore and Introduces the Corporate Value-up Program
- Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the Financial Services Commission held an investor relations event in Singapore with major institutional investors from Asia participating on February 27. During the dialogue, Vice Chairman Kim outlined the governments capital market reform initiatives with a particular attention on the recently announced Corporate Value-up Program, which have gained much interest from both domestic and overseas investors. The following is a summary of Vice Chairman Kims remarks. The Korean governments capital market reform measures have been focused on the following three areas. First, to establish a fair and transparent market order, the government has bolstered measures against unfair trading activities. A temporary ban on short-selling has been put in place to make trading conditions more equal for both retail and institutional investors and to build a completely electronic short-selling transaction system designed to prevent naked short-selling activities. Second, to make Koreas capital markets more accessible to investors, the authorities have already abolished the foreign investors registration requirement, mandated companies to file disclosures in English in phases, and eased the reporting requirement to facilitate the use of omnibus account. To help expand domestic investor base, the government has already decided to repeal the planned introduction of capital gains tax on financial investments and plans to expand tax benefits for individual savings accounts (ISAs). Third, to promote shareholder values in corporate management practices, the government has been consistently working on various measures aimed at protecting the rights of general shareholders. As a consequence, many large companies have now adopted the improved dividend payout procedure in which investors are able to make investment decisions while knowing how much they will receive in dividends. In addition, the Corporate Value-up Program, which was unveiled on February 26, is design
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Feb 26, 2024
- Active Support to be Provided to Promote Voluntary Efforts of Listed Companies in Enhancing Their Value
- The Financial Services Commission held the first seminar on the Corporate Value-up Program for the advancement of the Korean stock market together with the Korea Exchange, other related institutions, and industry groups on February 26. At todays seminar, key details of the Corporate Value-up Program, which have been jointly prepared by related institutions, were introduced to facilitate discussions and collect opinions from various stakeholders. FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun delivered opening remarks outlining the governments reform initiatives to bring about fundamental changes in our capital markets. They include (a) establishing a fair and transparent market order, (b) improving accessibility to capital markets, and (c) strengthening protection for general shareholders. To build up a positive feedback loop in our capital markets where listed companies are able to get proper valuation for sound growth and investors are able to share the profit of that growth and reinvest in the Korean capital market, the government needs to support companies voluntary efforts to raise their value, the Chairman said. He added that the Corporate Value-up Program will be implemented continuously as a mid- to long-term project to support companies value enhancement efforts and promote management practices that place a priority on shareholder value. Key details of the Corporate Value-up Program are as follows. In order to actively support listed companies self-driven efforts to improve their corporate value, the government and relevant organizations set out a framework to implement the Corporate Value-up Program. The framework consists of three pillars: (a) supporting listed companies to prepare, implement and communicate their corporate value-up plans, (b) supporting investors in making informed evaluations and investments in companies that demonstrate outstanding improvements or high value, and (c) establishing a dedicated system to support the implementation of the Corporate Value-up Pr
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Feb 20, 2024
- Authorities Hold Meeting on Household Debt Related Risks
- Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the Financial Services Commission presided over a meeting with relevant authorities and organizations on February 20 to discuss current household debt situation, related risks and future expectations. At the meeting, the authorities also went over the situation with policy mortgage loans and held talks on ways to improve the quantitative and qualitative structure of household debt. The preliminary data on household credit released by the Bank of Korea for the year of 2023 showed an increase of KRW18.8 trillion (up 1.0 percent) from the previous year. When compared to the ten-year (2013-2022) average growth of about KRW90 trillion a year in previous years, the current pace of growth appears to be on a very stable footing. At the meeting, participants expressed favorable views on the stable management over household credit. However, with expectations about interest rate cuts this year and a potential recovery in the housing market, authorities shared the same view on the need to more systematically manage the pace of growth. In this regard, Vice Chairman Kim said that the authorities will make efforts to ensure that the pace of household debt growth stays within the level of annual economic growth in 2024. Although there may be challenges along the way, such as rising demand for loans due to expectations for interest rate cuts and excessive competition between lenders, Vice Chairman Kim said that the authorities will work on the following measures. First, the authorities will continue to maintain close communication with all financial sectors. The Financial Supervisory Service will keep close tabs on how lenders are handling loans by their type and use, while requiring self-adjustment measures from the lenders deemed to be extending credit too rapidly. Second, the authorities will strictly manage the supply of policy mortgage loans to ensure the availability of housing loans to non-speculative homebuyers and renters, while taking appropria
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Feb 15, 2024
- Government Unveils KRW76 Trillion Worth Corporate Financing Support Plans in Private-Public Joint Initiative
- Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission presided over a meeting with the heads of five major commercial banks and policy financial institutions on February 15 and announced the governments plans to provide tailored funding support for enterprises. The FSC has held a series of meetings with businesses to listen to their challenges and difficulties in financing business operations. To make sure that the prepared measures can actually serve the needs of businesses, the FSC has actively collaborated with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The support measures being introduced today are also an outcome of active participation and contribution from policy financial institutions as well as from major commercial banks. In his opening remarks, FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun said that the future of Korean economy depends on the competitiveness of our enterprises, and that to boost our industrial competitiveness through new initiatives to ensure a continuous growth amid uncertain business environment, it is essential to have finance play an active role. In this regard, Chairman Kim stressed that it is necessary to have (a) a large-scale investment support for high-tech industries, (b) a targeted investment support for middle market enterprises, and (c) assistance programs made available for businesses undergoing challenging situations due high interest rates and so on. The corporate financing support plans being unveiled today consist of the following three key measures. First, authorities have prepared strategic financing support plans worth KRW26 trillion-plus for high-tech enterprises. A supply chain stabilization fund will be created to help businesses seeking to diversify imports, develop alternative technologies, and secure raw materials from overseas. The Korea Development Bank (KDB) will provide KRW15 trillion in financing support to the five major strategic sectorssuch as
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Jan 17, 2024
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Jan 03, 2024
- FSC Plans to Work on Measures to Improve the Competitiveness of Publicly Offered Funds
- Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the Financial Services Commission presided over a meeting with officials from related authorities and an industry groupto discuss plans to improve the competitiveness of the publicly offered funds market on January 3. In his opening remarks, Vice Chairman Kim said that the government has never been more serious about making fundamental changes to our capital markets, and that this plan is also a part of the policy drive intended to resolve the issue of Korea discount, the persistent undervaluation of Korean companies in stock markets. In this regard, the proposed plan will focus on nine specific ways to bring about improvements regarding institutions, products and infrastructure, with aims to cut transaction costs, strengthen product marketability and boost transaction convenience. First, the proposed plan intends to bring about improvements from institutions by strengthening the credibility and accountability of fund managers, sellers and related businesses including the fund accounting and administration companies and various ratings companies. Currently, the sales remuneration structure for fund sellers is designed in a way that all fund sellers are paid with fund assets in a uniform way. To boost accountability and competition between fund sellers, the authorities will introduce a more reasonable seller remuneration system (fund class) under which fund sellers will be paid directly from investors with the possibility of having different fee rates for different sellers within the statutory limit of one percent. For these types (or classes) of funds, the seller fee remuneration system can be linked to the performance of funds to boost responsibility of fund sellers. Along this line, the proposed plan will bolster asset managers accountability by requiring them to more regularly conduct evaluations on alternative investment assets and to more accurately advertise fees for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). With increases in demand for more f
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Dec 27, 2023
- Stressed Debt Service Ratio Rules to Take Effect in 2024
- The Financial Services Commission announced that the stressed debt service ratio (DSR) rules will take effect in 2024 on all types of loans that have variable, mixed or periodically changing interest rate structures. The stressed DSR system imposes a certain level of additional stress rate when calculating the borrowers DSR as it takes into account the possibility of the borrower facing heavier repayment burdens in the future with increases in interest rates. The additional stress rate will be determined based on the comparison of interest rates between the five-year peak level and the present level (as of May and November of every year). However, to buffer against the possibility of overestimating or underestimating the risk associated with interest rate changes in times or both high and low interest rates, the additional stress rate will be decided between a minimum of 1.5 percent and a maximum of 3.0 percent. For loans with variable interest rates, an additional stress rate of the five-year peak rate minus the present rate will be applied. For loans with mixed interest rate structuresthose with a fixed interest rate for a certain period of time first and changed into a variable interest rate structure thereafterthe longer the period of fixed interest rate structure, the lower the level of additional stress rates. For instance, for 30-year loans, if the period of fixed interest rate is set between five to nine years, the additional stress rate will be applied at a 60 percent level. For the fixed rate terms of nine to fifteen years and fifteen to twenty-one years, the additional stress rate will be applied at a 40 percent level and a 20 percent level, respectively. For loans with periodically changing interest rate structures, additional stress rates will be applied at eased levels. For 30-year loans, if the period of interest rate change is five to nine years, the additional stress rate will be applied at a 30 percent level. For those with nine-to-fifteen-years an
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Dec 26, 2023
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Nov 23, 2023
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Nov 20, 2023
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Nov 16, 2023
- Authorities Discuss Stock Short Sale Reform Measures
- Vice Chairman Kim So-young of the Financial Services Commission attended a meeting on short selling reform measures which brought together authorities from the private sector, the ruling party of the National Assembly and the government on November 16. At the meeting, the authorities discussed a direction for making improvements to the short selling system. The reform measures discussed at todays meeting are not finalized measures for implementation but a set of proposals laying out a direction for further discussions and refinement at the National Assembly and with the public. Overall, the proposed measures are aimed at (a) leveling the playing field between institutional and retail investors, (b) preventing naked short sales in advance, (c) strengthening the detection and punishment of illegal short selling activities, and (d) expanding short sale disclosure. Stock Short Sale Reform Proposal I. Leveling the playing field Currently, the stock borrowing conditions for short selling remain unequal between institutional investors and retail investors, although the gap has been narrowed considerably through past reform measures for retail investors, extending the stock repayment period from 60 days previously to 90 days and lowering the margin requirement from 140 percent previously to 120 percent. However, the discrepancies in stock lending still exist and this has been raised as a problem of unleveled playing field for retail investors vis--vis institutional investors. As a way to resolve this problem, the authorities propose making the stock repayment period and margin requirement same for both institutional investors and retail investors. More specifically, first, the stock repayment period for institutional investorscurrently unrestricted and determined on a contract-by-contract basiswill be set as 90 days, same as that for retail investors. The Korea Securities Depository, which handles stock lending to institutional investors, should check the repayment period o
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Nov 08, 2023
- Government and Related Authorities Hold Meeting on Household Debt Situation
- The Financial Services Commission held a meeting with officials from the relevant government ministries and organizations on November 8 and discussed the current household debt situation and various measures to ensure effective management. Regarding the October household loans data announced earlier today, the participants had a positive assessment about the slowing trend of mortgage loans, despite an overall increase in the size of household loans from the previous month. To continue to ensure a stable management of household loans, the authorities agreed on the need to strengthen relevant measures as follows. First, the authorities will bolster rules on debt service ratio (DSR) by closely reviewing the areas that are currently being exempted from DSR regulation and look into ways to gradually expand the application of DSR rule. The stressed DSR limit that is currently being reviewed for application on variable interest rate loans is expected to be announced in December this year with specific details. Second, the authorities will come up with stronger incentive structures that can reward banks to more actively and voluntarily introduce long-term, fixed interest rate mortgage loans by overhauling a relevant administrative guidance. The authorities will also seek to provide more incentives for covered bonds, which serve as a mechanism for banks to fund long-term, fixed rate loans. Third, the authorities will continue to keep close tabs on the trends of household loan growth across all financial sectors. Fourth, the authorities will work with financial sectors to come up with various ways to help reduce the burden of repayment and high interest rate for borrowers, for instance, by offering a temporary exemption from early repayment charges. At the meeting, FSC Secretary General Lee Se-hoon said that as it is difficult to achieve short-term results when it comes to containing household debt, the government will make efforts with a long-term perspective to build an inc
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Nov 05, 2023
- FSC Decides to Ban Stock Short Selling Until June 2024 and Seek Measures to Improve the System
- The Financial Services Commission held a meeting on November 5 where the authorities decided to ban all stock short selling in domestic markets (all KOSPI, KOSDAQ and KONEX listed items) effective from Monday, November 6, 2023 until the end of June 2024. With the continuation of high interest rate environment and stagnant growth in the global economy, coupled with geopolitical risks such as the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, there are growing uncertainties for the Korean economy. In particular, during the second half of this year, stock market volatility in domestic stock markets has risen to much higher levels compared to other major markets overseas,which caused anxiety in the market. Despite a series of measures introduced in the past,recently, the authorities have discovered a number of illegal naked short selling practices conducted by foreign and institutional investors, raising concerns about the fair pricing function of domestic stock markets. Recently, a large-scale naked short selling case involving global investment banks was detected, and an investigation is currently taking place with discovery of additional unlawful activities. As such, the FSC finds that the situation with illegal short selling is very dire as it can erode the fair pricing function of the market and degrade confidence in the market. Therefore, considering the need to preemptively respond to the rising market uncertainties and address concerns about the potential weakening of the markets fair pricing function, and with the practice of illegal naked short selling taking place in a more routine way, the FSC decided to ban short selling on all domestic stock items until the end of June next year. Meanwhile, during the period of banning short selling, the government will work on proactive measures to improve the system in a way that will help to root out illegal short selling activities when short selling resumes thereafter. In this regard, first, the authorities will work on mea
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Sep 25, 2023
- Policy Funds to Supply Venture Capital in Strategic Areas
- The Financial Services Commission held the 4th consultative body meeting on policy finance support with the related government ministries, policy financial institutions and a young entrepreneurs foundation on September 25. The consultative body on policy finance support was created last year to ensure more close alignment between the governments industrial strategies and supply of policy funds. In the five key strategic areas, the authorities last year pledged to supply a total of KRW91 trillion in policy funds support for 2023. As of August 2023, policy financial institutions have supplied a total of KRW73.8 trillion of policy funds support in the five key strategic sectors, achieving 80.4 percent of the annual supply target and surpassing the initial supply plan of 66.7 percent by the month of August. Along with concerns about an economic slowdown emanating from China, FSC Vice Chairman Kim So-young said that it is possible that interest rates and oil prices may continue to stay high for a while. Thus, in close coordination with relevant ministries, Vice Chairman Kim said that the authorities will work to ensure effective supply of policy funds to businesses to prevent funding shortages. To help ensure a continuous supply of policy finance support in each industry, the authorities discussed ways to more closely implement various industrial policy programs overseen by relevant government ministries with appropriate budget planning. In this regard, Vice Chairman Kim said that in order to provide policy finance support to various industrial sectors on a continuing basis, it is crucial to have a closer linkage between the supply of policy finance and fiscal planning. The authorities also discussed ways to overhaul the operation of Growth Ladder Fund, a fund dedicated for SMEs and venture businesses whose 10-year investment period has ended in August. The new Growth Ladder Fund will focus on investing in underfunded areas such as deep tech and climate sectors where the
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Sep 05, 2023
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Aug 17, 2023
- FSC Vice Chairman Holds Media Briefing on the Progress and Achievements of Capital Market Reform Agendas
- Vice Chairman Kim So-young of the Financial Services Commission held a media briefing on the progress and achievements of the governments capital market reform agendas on August 17. The following is a summary of Vice Chairman Kims remarks. I. Key Achievements This administration has been actively pursuing capital market reforms as a key part of the governments policy priority. In particular, the government has taken bold steps to resolve the problem of the so-called Korea discount by enhancing investor protections, removing outdated regulations and overhauling rules to foster innovation in the market. Despite the presence of difficult economic and financial conditions, there have been some favorable outcomes achieved thank to active cooperation between relevant institutions and industries. Restoring Investor Trust First, the government has prioritized in implementing a set of measures aimed at restoring investors trust in the capital market. In this regard, the governments policy focused on (a) strengthening the rights and interests of general shareholders, (b) bolstering response against fraudulent and unfair trading activities, and (c) ensuring order and fairness in the market. With regard to strengthening protections for general shareholders, we have put in place three layers of protection mechanisms at the end of last year to ensure that the rights and interests of general shareholders are thoroughly guaranteed in an IPO of a split-off subsidiary. Since the introduction of the measures, we have seen changes in corporate practices as more companies are drawing up shareholder protection plans on their own and communicating with shareholders to seek their consent. To protect general shareholders from unforeseen damages caused by insider transactions involving large shareholders or executive officers, we introduced a rule requiring corporate insiders to disclose their share trading plans before the expected trading date. To ensure that general shareholders can also
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Jul 27, 2023
- Authorities Propose Measures to Improve Special Listing Procedures for High-tech Companies
- The Financial Services Commission held a meeting with the relevant government ministries and private sector entities on July 27 and unveiled a plan to improve the special listing procedures for technology companies. The plan includes 14 specific reform items from the stage of listing application to listing review to post-listing management. First, in the listing application stage, a new super gap tech listing track will be created for high-tech and strategically critical technology companies, for instance in deep tech or deep science sectors. Among them, businesses that are market-tested for their growth potential will be allowed to have a tech assessment conducted only by a single entity. They need to be designated as national strategic technology companies or national advanced strategic technology companies as prescribed by the relevant laws, have market capitalization of KRW100 billion or more and have received investment of KRW10 billion or more in the past five years. In addition, a business eligible to apply for the super gap tech listing track will be allowed to seek a special tech listing track even when its largest investor is a middle market enterprise, considering wide adoption of open innovation business models based on collaboration between an SME and a middle market enterprise. However, the size of investment by a middle market enterprise will be limited to less than fifty percent to prevent potential problems regarding the ownership of the company. Also, the complex structure of the current special tech listing track will be made simpler and more reasonable. For instance, businesses with technological prowess will be able to apply through innovative technology track, while those with distinctive business models can apply through business model track. Second, in the listing review stage, a fast-track review process will be granted to those that have been turned down previously for reasons other than their technology or business viability. In this case,
