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May 20, 2009
- Short Selling Permitted on Non-Financial Stocks
- The Financial Services Commission made a decision today to start allowing short selling transactions of non-financial company stocks beginning June 1.However, for the time being, the ban on short selling for financial stocks will continue to be in effect due to volatility still lingering in the market. These stocks include stocks of banks, securities companies, and insurance companies that are traded in the Kospi and the Kosdaq markets.Furthermore, as stipulated in the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (FSCMA), naked short selling will not be permitted, but only covered short selling will be permitted.To effectively monitor and supervise the short selling activities, a Short Selling Confirmation System will be placed, as well as Short Selling Execution Guidelines. Systemic Enhancements relating to Short Selling1. Disclosure of short selling and stock borrowing information in the stock market through the Korea Exchange (KRX) and the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA).2. Establishment of Short Selling Confirmation System (March 2009) to effectively enforce short selling regulations. Under this system, an investment broker is required to verify whether he or she has followed the short selling regulations correctly.3. The Execution Guidelines for Short Selling (May 2009) have been drawn up to introduce a concept of ‘net short position’ in order to set a clear standard of what is considered short selling and what is not. The ban on short selling of non-financial stocks will be lifted on June 1, 2009, to give ample time for investors and financial investment companies to conduct preparations.Only the financial investment companies that have completed their preparations according to the guideline measures will be allowed to start placing short sell orders and conduct brokerage transactions for clients.The FSC intends on removing the ban also on short selling of financial stocks given further signs of improvements in the markets.* Please
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May 18, 2009
- 2009 Corporate Restructuring Fund Management Plan
- Amid a global financial crisis, the government has taken a number of steps to facilitate and expedite corporate restructuring of distressed companies in order to dismiss concern of worsening financial soundness of financial institutions. In line with this effort, on May 13, the legislative bill relevant to the establishment of the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) was amended to enable the Corporate Restructuring Fund to be set up within the KAMCO. The National Assembly has previously passed a motion on providing debt service guarantees for bonds that will be issued for the envisioned KRW 40 trillion Fund throughout 2009 and 2010.Subsequently, the 2009 Corporate Restructuring Fund Management Plan will be submitted to the National Assembly in late May, after a cabinet meeting held on May 19.The planned amount for the Fund in 2009 is KRW 20.2 trillion, which is subject to changes in further economic developments, whereas the actual total bond issuance for the Fund will depend on the amount of distressed assets it needs to purchase, and prevailing market conditions. The payments for the purchase of the distressed assets will be made by bonds from the Corporate Restructuring Fund, so as to minimize the impact on the bond market. The liquidity support of KRW 120 billion for the companies experiencing temporary liquidity shortage is included in the Fund as well.The majority of the Fund, KRW 20 trillion, will be used to acquire impaired loans from financial institutions and distressed assets from companies undergoing restructuring. This will preferentially include acquisitions of KRW 4.7 trillion of financial institutions’ non-performing loans from project financings and KRW 1 trillion worth of struggling ships that are in operation.The implementation of the Corporate Restructuring Fund is expected to enhance and expedite the restructuring process to preempt deterioration of asset quality of financial institutions. Through effectively utilizing the Fund in the p
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May 15, 2009
- FSC Chairman, Dong-Soo Chin Meets Foreign Correspondents
- I. GreetingsDistinguished members of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club, and ladies and gentlemen,It’s great to be here with you and I thank you for coming.I also thank the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club for helping us arrange today’s meeting and giving me a chance to speak to foreign correspondents about Korea’s policy response to the global financial crisis.It is my hope that today’s meeting will shed new light on recent market and policy developments in Korea and what you can expect going forward in terms of financial policy from the FSC.II. The Financial Crisis and Korea’s ResponsePolicymakers in the U.S. and other major countries have responded aggressively and forcefully to the global financial crisis.With many characterizing the crisis as the worst since the Great Depression, there was more than ample justification for bold policy measures.Korea’s policymakers acted in a similarly bold fashion to cushion the impact of the crisis on the financial system and the broad economy.In terms of financial policy, we had two broad goals to accomplish: safeguarding the financial markets and reinstating the financial sector as the patron for thereal economy.Safeguarding the Financial MarketsAs the financial crisis began to spread around the world, it became clear to us that we had to act swiftly on several fronts to avoid systemic risk, and maintain the stability of the financial markets.To stabilize the foreign currency market, the government provided external debt guarantees for domestic banks and signed currency swap arrangements with major countries.On the other hand, to bring back stability to the financial markets, interest rates were cut and the Bond Market Stabilization Fund was created to increase liquidity and help restore the flow of credit to the real sector.Steps were also taken to prevent market instability due to abrupt capital outflow from the short-term money market.Reinstating the Financial Sector as the Patron for the Real Eco
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May 15, 2009
- Opening of the Fn Hub Korea, Busan
- The opening ceremony of ‘Fn Hub Korea, Busan’ will be held on May 15, 2009 at 2p.m. Fn Hub Korea, Busan was established to support Busan (Munhyeon), designated as a specialized financial cluster on January 28, 2009, develop into a global financial center.More than 30 representatives from financial institutions and related agencies will be present to celebrate the opening of Fn Hub Korea, Busan, including the FSS Governor, Jong Chang Kim, the Mayor of Busan, Nam Sik Hur, members of the National Assembly, Byung Soo Suh, Jong Hoon Kim and Jin Bok Lee, the President of the Busan Metropolitan Council, Jong Mo Je, as well as the Chairman of the Foreign Banks Group, Michael Hellbeck.Fn Hub Korea, Busan will assist in the promotion of Busan as an attractive business destination for global financial companies as well as provide assistance to domestic financial companies planning overseas expansion. It will also provide one-stop services to support with regulatory approval processes and work to resolve any business difficulties and obstacles encountered by the financial companies to contribute to the growth and development of Busan into a financial center specializing in marine related finance* and derivatives.* For the development and the transaction of financial products related to the marine industry such as shipbuilding, marine transportation, and logistics.* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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May 13, 2009
- SME Financial Support Results (April 2009)
- 1) Bank LoansDespite the economic slowdown, loans provided by 18 domestic banks to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increased to total KRW434.3 trillion as of end-April this year on the back of expanded guarantees and maturity extensions.For the first four months of 2009, the net increase in SME loans was KRW12.0 trillion from the end of last year. When adding the actual support amount, including SME bank deposit-loan nettings, which is to be reflected in MOU evaluations, the net increase amounted to KRW13.7 trillion.In April alone, the preliminary net increase in SME loans was KRW2.2 trillion won, lower than a monthly average of KRW3.0 – 3.7 trillion during the first three months of the year. The drop was largely attributed to NACF’s KRW900 billion policy fund coming due and sluggish overall demand for capital including slowed issuance of credit guarantees.More recently, conditions have also turned in favor of small and medium-sized companies, as witnessed with the Business Survey Index going up from 56 in January 2009 to 83 in April.2) Fast Track ProgramKeeping up with the high pace set in January this year, a total of KRW2.6 trillion was extended to 1,231 companies through the Fast Track program in April.Since the Fast Track program was initiated on October 13, 2008, a total of 8,194 companies have been extended KRW13.3 trillion in support, KRW3.8 trillion of which was provided to 583 companies that had incurred losses in KIKO and other currency option contracts.3) Guarantees Bank Loan Maturity ExtensionsIn April, there was KRW4.9 trillion in new guarantees, 3.1 times more than the KRW1.6 trillion issued during the same period last year. But as the number of applications for guarantees has fallen on month by 14.8% to 66,307 cases inApril, the pace of increase is slowing for both guarantee applications and their issues.Also last month, there was KRW3.6 trillion in maturity extensions with a 95% rollover rate.From January to April, KRW9.5 trillion was
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May 04, 2009
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Apr 30, 2009
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Apr 23, 2009
- Restructuring Plans for the Shipping Industry
- 1. BackgroundIn recent years, shipping companies have continuously grown in size* driven by drastic rise in freight rates (Baltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI)).Starting from the end of last year, the business environments have gotten drastically worsened with sudden freefall of freight rates. Consequently, many had to curtail their operations and some became insolvent.For instance, Samsun Logics, the 9th biggest in terms of asset size, filed for petition for a rehabilitation program in February.Although the freight rates have gone up a bit lately, up to 2,084 by March 4, due to prevalent oversupply, a recovery in full scale is deemed difficult.As such, there has been some concern about increasing insolvency among shipping companies as it might burden other related industries, especially shipbuilding or financial companies. Furthermore, their insolvency can be easily spread over to the overall shipping industry because of the complex, multi-layered chartering contracts.Most certainly, if the number of chartering contract cancellation continues to increase, then shipbuilding and financial companies will inevitably face the risk. Therefore, the following restructuring plans, which are to be carried out on a day-to-day, ongoing basis, will help contain increasing insolvency in the shipping industry and to revamp the industry so as to strengthen its competitiveness in the global market.2. Restructuring PlansA. Continuous restructuring of shipping companiesIn line with the existing corporate restructuring procedures* supported by the Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act, creditor banks will conduct credit risk assessment of subject shipping companies on an ongoing basis.*Already, companies whose total loans amount to KRW 50 billion or more are subject to annual mandatory credit risk assessment, due June every year, by their creditor banks.To facilitate the restructuring process, creditor banks will be advised to complete risk assessments by early May this year for shipping c
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Apr 09, 2009
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Apr 09, 2009
- Promotion of Government Bond ETFs
- As a follow up step to the Financial Investment Services Capital Markets Act launched in February this year, the Financial Services Commission has issued an initiative to promote Exchange Trade Funds, or ETFs, by allowing a broader scope of investment; currently, only equity-linked ETFs are being traded in the Korean market. Under the new initiative, a diversified array of products will be traded as in other advanced markets such as the U.S. and the E.U.: i.e. ETFs linked to bonds, commodities, gold and crude oil ETFs, inverse ETFs, leveraged ETF, etc., trading of which will be based on trading prices or index.For the government bond linked ETFs, the FSC will revise current regulations to adjust the required number of principle assets from minimum 10 items to 3 items.The FSC believes that such market-friendly steps will result in favorable market response particularly among small private investors and foreign investors, encouraging their active partaking in the government bond trading. This is expected to have positive impacts on the market by stimulating the government bond issuance and the overall trading markets.For the successful launch of new ETFs, the FSC will also revise ‘Financial Investment Act’ and ‘IPO Operation Code ’ of the Korea Stock Exchange by May or June this year.* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Apr 08, 2009
- Pre-Workout Program
- The Credit Counseling and Recovery Service (CCRS) is a nonprofit corporation aiming to support debtors in financial difficulties and regulated by the Financial Services Commission.Starting on April 13 for a limited duration of one year, the CCRS and creditor institutions will run a “Pre-Workout Program” in support of individual borrowers who are delinquent for a short term between one and three months. This plan was first announced in March 10 this year.The main objective of this initiative is to take preemptive steps against further increase in as well as protraction of household delinquents, posing a threat to hurt asset soundness of creditor financial institutions.To be qualified for the program, there are six criteria which applicants must satisfy, and they include the total debt amount limit by two creditors (under KRW 500 million), delinquency length (between 30 and 90 days), and the ratio of new credit to total existing debts (30% maximum), among others.Meanwhile, to prevent credit delinquents from taking advantage of this program by intentionally putting off repayments, the CCRS and financial institutions will soon unveil additional provisions.For further details, interested users can call (1600-5500) or email CCRC (www.ccrs.or.kr) directly.* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Mar 31, 2009
- The Bank Recapitalization Fund - 1st Round Purchase
- On March 31, the Bank Recapitalization Fund Oversight Committee announced that the first round of bond purchase was completed. The total amount of purchase completed, both hybrid and subordinated bonds issued by 8 financial institutions, is KRW3.956 trillion out of the total ceiling amount, KRW 12.3 trillion, set for the first round of support- Hybrid Bonds: KRW 3,453 billion- Subordinated Bonds: KWR 503 billionAdditional bonds from applying banks will be purchased according to their access limit. An MoU is to be signed between the government and each participating bank in order toensure each bank’s full commitment to providing active support to the real economic sectors while prescribing against the government’s management intervention.The government will conduct follow up monitoring for all participating banks as to their commitment to supporting the economy, regardless to their actual use of the Fund.Meanwhile, in order to prevent the Fund from being concentrated in one particular industry, the Fund Oversight Committee will set an industry-based quota for the support from the participating banks.To those banks deemed lagging behind their MoU commitment to supporting the real economic sectors, punitive measures will be applied on the next round of bond purchase such as limiting the amount of purchase, lowering their total access limit, and raising applicable interest rates.* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Mar 30, 2009
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Mar 27, 2009
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Mar 20, 2009
- Bank Recapitalization Fund's Execution Blueprint
- The Bank Recapitalization Fund Oversight Committee has unveiled its third blueprint as to the basic guidelines for the first round of purchasing banks’ hybrid bonds and subordinate bonds scheduled at the end of March. The purchasing criteria will be determined based on the current and past interest rates, and the interest spread for those bonds.Also, the government evaluated the progress banks have made based on the Fund’s policy objectives and the progress of subject banks’ implementation of their MOU commitment, prerequisite to the government guarantee on their external debts.As for regional banks, to account for the considerable discrepancy in thier credit ratings as opposed to nation-wide banks, 30bp difference will be assumed.The Korea Exchange Bank has informed the FSC that it would not use its credit line for issuing hybrid bonds but would go ahead as planned with issuing subordinate bonds (KRW 250 billion).The first round of bond purchasing will be implemented at the end of March after receiving banks’ application to sell their bonds during the month.Based on the result of the market survey, it is expected that the first round will total approximately KRW 3.8 trillion for hybrid bonds and KRW 0.5 trillion for subordinate bonds.The fund will be operated via a “matching” method in which the fund amount will be set to match the amount in demand in accordance with the needs in supporting the real economic sectors, corporate restructuring, and foreign currency markets.By monitoring the progress the participating banks have made with their implementation of the MoU, those who have inadequately served their commitment to supporting the real economic sectors and other preconditions to the Fund, several countermeasures could be applied to them such as limiting their access amount and raising applicable interest rates.* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Mar 18, 2009
- FSC Meets the Press and Investors in London
- Headed by the Vice Chairman, Dr. Rhee Chang Yong, the FSC delegates met with representatives from major British media and financial institutions in London on Friday, March 13, 2009.ParticipantsPress: The Economist, the Financial Times, Reuters, BBCFinancial Institutions: HSBC, Barclays Capital, Standard Chartered, Duetsche BankThe main mission of the seminar was, before the impending G-20 Summit meeting in London, to update its local press and financial communities on Korea’s current economic and financial positions by providing detailed data.This has provided opportunities to set up communication channel with influential media such as BBC, the Economist, the Financial Times, and Reuters.For clear communication on Korean economy and financial markets, the FSC has set up bi-weekly teleconferences with the media and foreign investors, and this fact was also delivered at the meetings. Key Points DiscussedThe FSC addressed major issues raised by the media and investors: foreign debt, liquidity in foreign currency, mortgage loans, impact of Eastern European market risks on Korea, and business prospects for Korean shipbuilding companies.The FSC delegates stressed the importance for advanced economies to stand firmly by the Free-Market Principles not regressing to trade protectionism. Also was emphasized the need for G-20 countries to have a portion of massive liquidity injection accessible to emerging market countries.Regarding Fitch’s Stress Test results, the FSC expressed its regret on behalf of the Korean government and bank industry, that the results based on extreme speculation on the banking sector were actually reported by the press.The FSC engaged in talks with the Bank of England and financial experts regarding policy efforts in both jurisdictions for crisis management.The FSC called for wider and fairer coverage of Korean economy, which is often surmised in a package with emerging economies in the Asian region.A view was shared among the participants that th
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Mar 13, 2009
- Preemptive Initiatives to Safeguard the Soundness of Financial Instituitions
- 1. BackgroundAmid deteriorating financial climate in the global economy, much uncertainty in global financial markets has also escalated. Thus, the Korean economy is likely to suffer a prolonged recession, potentially triggering an economic vicious circle starting with corporate and house-hold loan defaults which may hurt the financial sector’s soundness and weaken their lending and overall financial intermediary functions, consequently exacerbating the overall economic basis.Meanwhile, major economies are in the process of preparing or already implementing preemptive measures to support their financial industries by cleaning up non-performing loans and recapitalizing so as to strengthen its intermediary role of supporting the real economic sectors.Notwithstanding Korea’s economy’s relatively strong position, in order to be better prepared for potential risks in case of further deterioration of global market conditions, the government has decided to take preemptive initiatives to strengthen financial institutions’ intermediary functions and to eliminate any potential sources for systemic risks.To do so, early resolution of NPLs in the financial industry has to be preceded to help ascertain its overall soundness. For this, the government already announced its plan to set up a Restructuring Fund under KAMCO in February. On March 13, the government unveils its additional plan to enhance existing regulations to facilitate the government’s rendering greater support to financial institutions in need of further recapitalization. Improved regulations will also allow for launching a government-guaranteed KAMCO bonds in the total amount of KRW 40 trillion. The bills proposing these initiatives will be submitted to the National Assembly in April.Under these new initiatives, financial institutions’ soundness will greatly improve and their ability to shore up real economic sectors will also be strengthened.For the same purpose, the Bank Recapitalization Fund has alre
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Mar 13, 2009
- Fitch Ratings' Stress Test
- 1. Summary of Fitch Ratings’stress test on Korean banksGlobal credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, announced the results of its stress test on Korean banks on Thursday, March 12th at around 22:00 (Seoul time).A summary of the stress test results is as follows:Under a stress scenario during the period from June 2008 through December 2010, Korean banks would see a decline in capitalization totaling KRW 42 trillion due to credit costs, losses on equity and debt securities holdings and asset growth through the inflation of foreign currency assets given the depreciation of the Korean won in the past year.The banks’ combined equity-to-assets ratio would decline from 6.4 percent in June 2008 to 4.0 percent in December 2010.The KRW 42 trillion reduction in capitalization would require additional capital raisings by the banks, and such capital may have to come from the government. The government’s current KRW 20 trillion Bank Recapitalization Fund may not be sufficient, particularly to the extent it is used to buy subordinated debt and lower quality hybrid debt from the banks.2. Government’s response to the stress test resultsA. The results of the stress test are based on variables and assumptions (e.g. estimated loss rates on bonds and securities), which can be easily altered by future economic events. Therefore, the government finds it inappropriate for Fitch to release such speculative results on Korean banks when this could adversely impact their international credibility and financial soundness.B. Even if the worst possible scenario were to be materialized, in which the expected loss of 42 trillion won were to be taken into account and no new recapitalization were to be assumed, the tangible common equity (TCE) ratio of Korean banks would be 4.0 percent as of the end of 2010, which would be still higher than the current TCE ratios of major leading banks worldwide. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) ratio would be 8.7 percent, still higher than th
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Mar 06, 2009
- FSC Article Published in AWSJ
- By Rhee ChangyoungSEOUL—South Korea, like all other advanced economies, has inevitably been affected by the financial-market turmoil seeping the globe. Yet the precise nature of these effects on our economy has too often been misunderstood. Some commentators claim that Korea is facing another major financial crisis similar to what it experienced during the Asian financial crisis. This is untrue, and it is important to set the record straight.The Korean economy is often inaccurately characterized as weak because of its external debt. It is true that Korea’s total external debt up for repayment within 2009 is $194 billion. But $39 billion of that amount is considered non-obligatory debt, such as foreign-exchange hedging and advanced payment receipts for ship orders that will clear off the books when the ships are delivered. Korea’s net external debt totals $155 billion, or 77% of Korea’s foreign reserves of $201.5 billion as of last month. The current roll-over ratio of foreign debt as of February is over 91%. Inother words, our banks and corporations are experiencing no problems repaying or refinancing their debts. Looking at the banking sector alone, out of total external debt of $171.7 billion as of the end of 2008, debt held by branches of foreign banks accounts for $72.3 billion, which does not affect the solvency of domestic banks. The actual amount of external debt held by domestic banks as of the end of 2008 is $99.4 billion—only half of Korea’s foreign reserves.Nonetheless, some market commentators have openly expressed their pessimism. Perhaps such pessimism might be traced back to Korea’s 1997 crisis and the fear that it may be repeated. Such a possibility, however, is slim. The Korean economy today is very different from what it was a decade ago.First, the corporate sector whose debts helped trigger the Asian financial crisis in Korea has been transformed, and is now sound and transparent. The ratio of corporate debt to equity, for instance,
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Mar 05, 2009
- Restructuring of Shipping Companies
- 1. BackgroundIn recent years, shipping companies have continuously grown in size* driven by drastic rise in freight rates (Baltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI)).Starting from the end of last year, the business environments have gotten drastically worsened with sudden freefall of freight rates. Consequently, many had to curtail their operations and some became insolvent.For instance, Samsun Logics, the 9th biggest in terms of asset size, filed for petition for a rehabilitation program in February.Although the freight rates have gone up a bit lately, up to 2,084 by March 4, due to prevalent oversupply, a recovery in full scale is deemed difficult.As such, there has been some concern about increasing insolvency among shipping companies as it might burden other related industries, especially shipbuilding or financial companies. Furthermore, their insolvency can be easily spread over to the overall shipping industry because of the complex, multi-layered chartering contracts.Most certainly, if the number of chartering contract cancellation continues to increase, then shipbuilding and financial companies will inevitably face the risk. Therefore, the following restructuring plans, which are to be carried out on a day-to-day, ongoing basis, will help contain increasing insolvency in the shipping industry and to revamp the industry so as to strengthen its competitiveness in the global market.2. Restructuring PlansA. Continuous restructuring of shipping companiesIn line with the existing corporate restructuring procedures* supported by the Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act, creditor banks will conduct credit risk assessment of subject shipping companies on an ongoing basis.*Already, companies whose total loans amount to KRW 50 billion or more are subject to annual mandatory credit risk assessment, due June every year, by their creditor banks.To facilitate the restructuring process, creditor banks will be advised to complete risk assessments by early May this year for shipping c
