Financial stability is a prerequisite to innovation and inclusive finance policies. FSC maintains close market monitoring for any signs of market volatility and works to ensure stability in the financial markets. There are risk factors originating from abroad and from within. FSC focuses on making our economy more resilient from external shocks, such as a disruption in the global supply chain, and supporting Korea’s material, component and equipment industries to help boost their global competitiveness. Internally, FSC is closely monitoring the trends in household debt and seeking reforms to corporate restructuring in order to prevent domestic risk factors from turning into systemic risks. Policies aimed at increasing financial stability also include enhancing fairness in the financial markets by introducing a comprehensive legal framework for the supervision of financial conglomerates, improving market discipline and promoting transparency in corporate disclosure and accounting practices.
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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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Mar 27, 2024
- New Operating Rules on Virtual Asset Market Inspection to Ensure Strict Investigation and Punishment on Unfair Trades
- The Financial Services Commission issued a preliminary notice for the enactment of new operating rules on the inspection of virtual asset market being proposed for public comment from March 28 to May 7. The new operating rules will specifically deal with details of the procedures and methods regarding the examination and investigation of unfair trading activities in the virtual asset market. Pursuant to the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users (the Act hereinafter), which is scheduled to go into effect from July 19 this year, unfair trading activities involving virtual assets, such as the use of material nonpublic information, price manipulation, and other fraudulent activities, are prohibited and subject to criminal punishment or penalty surcharge.Once the Act becomes effective, unfair trading activities (or suspicious transactions) involving virtual assets will be first (a) monitored by virtual asset service providers (VASPs), then the case will be (b) examined by the FSC and the FSS (Financial Supervisory Service) to bring a formal charge with the prosecutors office, which will then (c) investigate the case for (d) imposing a criminal punishment or penalty surcharge. In this regard, the new operating rules being proposed prescribe specific procedures and methods for each stage of the investigation process. First, upon finding a suspicious transaction activity, VASPs should take appropriate measures to protect users, by issuing a warning, fact-checking about the rumor and disclosing findings, restricting orders, suspending transactions, and so on. When it is suspected to have detected an unfair trading activity, VASPs should report the case to the FSC and the FSS. When there is enough corroborating evidence demonstrating that an unfair trading activity took place, or if a request has been received from an investigative authority about an ongoing investigation, VASPs should immediately report the case to the prosecutors office. Second, the FSC and the FSS a
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Mar 19, 2024
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Feb 28, 2024
- Rule Changes Proposed Regarding Insider Transactions under the FSCMA
- The Financial Services Commission issued a preliminary notice of rule changes being proposed concerning the ex-ante disclosure requirement for insider transactions under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (FSCMA). With regard to the ex-ante disclosure requirement for insider transactions, the revision proposal specifies the entities that will be exempted from the disclosure duty, the volume and type of transactions that will be exempted from the disclosure duty, and the procedure and method for disclosure. First, the rule changes being proposed exempt pension funds and other financial investors that are expected to have higher levels of internal control standards and are unlikely to misuse material nonpublic informationsuch as collective investment vehicles, banks, insurance companies, specialized credit finance companies, financial investment businesses, venture capital firms, and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agencyfrom the duty to disclose their stock transaction plans in advance for insider transactions. Moreover, an exemption from the ex-ante disclosure duty will also be granted to foreign investors that are deemed to have an equivalent status to the above mentioned domestic financial investors to ensure more equal treatment of both domestic and foreign investors. Second, the rule changes being proposed grant an exemption if the volume of transactions in particular securities typesover the past six months is less than one percent of the total number of shares issued by the company within that particular year and if the total amount of transactions is less than KRW5 billion. Moreover, an exemption from the ex-ante disclosure duty will also be granted for transactions resulting from a statutory requirement, tender offers, or acquisitions or dispositions following corporate spin-offs or mergers. Third, the rule changes being proposed require that companies insider transaction plans specify the expected transaction price and volume as well as t
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Feb 26, 2024
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Feb 21, 2024
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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 14, 2024
- Authorities Meet to Discuss ESG Disclosure Standards
- The Financial Services Commission held a meeting with officials from industry groups, investors, related organizations and private sector experts on February 14 to have a discussion on the preparation of domestic disclosure standards for environmental, social and governance (ESG) management. FSC Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung presided over the meeting and delivered opening remarks, outlining trends in global disclosure standards and direction for domestic ESG disclosure standards. The following is a summary of Vice Chairman Kims remarks. Global interest on ESG and sustainable growth has led to the strengthening of ESG policy and regulations in global capital markets. To facilitate domestic firms to more effectively respond to this, the government has been making efforts to support the sustainable growth of our economy and businesses. As a part of this, the FSC had introduced a general direction for pursuing ESG disclosure standards at a taskforce meeting held in October last year. Considering trends in major countries, authorities had agreed to adopt ESG disclosure standards from after 2026 and agreed to consider an exchange filing requirement and an application of a minimum level of sanctions during an early stage. Moreover, authorities had agreed on considering the adoption of climate-related disclosure standards first as there is an international consensus already established on this. ESG disclosure standards are aimed at making sure that information about corporate sustainability practices can be disseminated to investors in a more systematic way, thereby helping to resolve the problem of information asymmetry between companies and investors. Many firms have been filing sustainability reports on a voluntary basis, but the lack of common standards made them difficult for comparison. Therefore, the government has been working with related organizations, such as Korea Accounting Institute, in preparing ESG disclosure standards to be adopted by domestic stock companies.
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Feb 13, 2024
- FSC Proposes Rules Change Introducing Responsibilities Map to Bolster Internal Control of Financial Companies
- The Financial Services Commission issued a preliminary notice regarding a revision proposal for the enforcement decree of the Act on Corporate Governance of Financial Companies and its supervisory regulation on February 13. In December last year, a partial revision to the Act on Corporate Governance of Financial Companies (the Act hereinafter) was passed by the National Assembly, paving the way for financial companies to adopt responsibilities maps and have their executive officers manage internal control duties in their lines of work. As a follow-up to this, the revised enforcement decree and supervisory regulation being announced today specifically deal with the issues delegated by the Act, such as how to prepare for a responsibilities map and when and how to submit it, as well as details about the internal control oversight duty of chief executive officers. First, the revision proposal deals with specific details concerning how to write and submit responsibilities maps. A responsibilities map should be written with details about the scope of internal control responsibilities of each executive officer demonstrating a well-balanced division of responsibilities. Financial companies will be required to submit responsibilities statements, detailing each executive officers duties and responsibilities, as well as responsibilities diagrams, mapping out responsibilities of their executive officers in relation to one another in a visual manner. The responsibilities maps should be submitted to the financial authority within seven business days from the time of approval from their boards. The term responsibilities refers to the internal control and risk management duties relating to the business operations of a financial company. The business operations of a financial company are categorized into (a) the company-wide oversight functions, such as internal audit, compliance, and risk management, (b) the authorized sales and marketing related functions, such as lending and depo
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Feb 08, 2024
- FSC to Ensure Thorough Preparation for the Enforcement of the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users
- The Financial Services Commission announced that the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users (the Act hereinafter) will take effect from July 19, 2024. This law was enacted on July 18, 2023 with aims to protect the users of virtual assets and maintain an order in the market. The Act largely deals with (a) protection of assets held by users of virtual assets, (b) prohibition of unfair trading activities in the virtual asset market, and (c) supervision and sanctions authority over virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and related market activities. To provide specific details delegated by the Act, the FSC had prepared an enforcement decree and a supervisory regulation and sought public comment between December 11, 2023 and January 22, 2024. Major details of the current legislative framework on the protection of virtual asset users are as follows. First, VASPs have the duty to safely keep deposits and virtual assets owned by users. Banks have been selected as the sole financial institutions eligible to carry out the handling and custody of user deposits. To ensure safe protection of users assets, VASPs need to keep more than a certain level of users assets in cold wallets (minimum 80 percent of virtual assets economic value). To be prepared for incidents of hacking or computer failure, VASPs need to have a liability insurance or set aside a reserve to be able to meet demands for compensation. In transactions involving virtual assets, the acts of using undisclosed material information, manipulating market prices, and engaging in unfair trading activities are all prohibited and punishable by either a criminal penalty or a penalty surcharge. A criminal sentence of minimum one year of imprisonment or a fine of more than three times and up to five times the amount of unfairly gained profits can be imposed. Violators may face up to a life sentence depending on the amount of unfairly gained profits (if more than KRW5 billion). Imposing a penalty surcharge at double the
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Feb 06, 2024
- FSC Holds Meeting and Announces Plans to Upgrade Rules on Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions
- Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the Financial Services Commission presided over a meeting with officials from related organizations and industry groups on February 6 and announced plans to improve rules on corporate mergers and acquisitions (MAs). The measures are aimed at strengthening protection for investors, which will also help to boost regulatory consistency with global standards. At the meeting, Vice Chairman Kim delivered opening remarks, outlining some of the problems observed in the market and policy proposals to address them. The following is a summary of Vice Chairman Kims remarks. Corporate MAs are important mechanisms to promote growth and innovation in a company and boost dynamism in an economy. Securing a competitive edge through MAs has become ever more important when considering recent economic conditions, such as interest rate hikes and global economic slowdown. Meanwhile, MAs are important corporate decisions which can significantly influence the governance structure and share value of a company, and thus are also very important from the perspective of guaranteeing the protection of rights for general shareholders. For this, authorities have worked to ensure that companies get consent from their shareholders when pursuing MAs and to provide sufficient protections for dissenting shareholders. However, in corporate MAs, there continues to be the problem of general shareholders being sidelined, with their voices not being heard enough. In this regard, there have been concerns about the lack of sufficient information available on the reasons for undertaking MAs and their processes as well as important decision-making by boards of directors. At the same time, there have been also complaints about the rigidity in rules concerning the method of calculating merger prices, which have not been able to take into account the corporate restructuring demands of companies in a more autonomous way. To address these issues, in May last year, the FSC announced a set
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Feb 05, 2024
- FSC and MOIS Sign MOU to Bolster Prudential Supervision on MG Community Credit Cooperatives
- The Financial Services Commission announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) to strengthen cooperation between the two organizations to bolster supervision over MG Community Credit Cooperatives (MGCCC) on February 5. In the wake of large-scale deposit outflows that took place at MGCCC last year, the FSC and the MOIS came to agree on the need to expand the role of financial authorities in carrying out prudential supervision over MGCCC. Shortly thereafter, in December last year, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) each set up an internal organization tasked with supervising MGCCC. In this regard, todays agreement lays out rules and principles needed to build a stronger cooperative supervisory network between the two organizations. Key details of the agreement are as follows. First, regarding the rules and procedures, the MOIS will decide on MGCCCs prudential management standard in consultation with the FSC and on a par with the prudential standards observed by other types of mutual financial businesses. Second, regarding information sharing, the FSC will be able to regularly and frequently receive information needed to ensure prudential supervision over MGCCC from the MOIS. Third, regarding inspection and post-inspection measure, the MOIS and the FSC will mutually consult with each other in establishing a plan for inspection and deciding on a post-inspection measure. At the MOU signing event, FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun pledged to actively cooperate with the MOIS and urged related authorities to make sure a seamless operation of the joint inspection units. The government expects that this agreement will serve as a first step in helping to bolster prudential supervision on MGCCC. * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Feb 01, 2024
- FSC Proposes Revision to Supervisory Regulation on Electronic Financial Services
- The Financial Services Commission proposed a revision to the supervisory regulation on electronic financial services on February 1. The revision is intended to shift the current regulatory framework from rule-based to principle-based one, allowing more room to make autonomous decisions for financial companies, and bolster the resilience of electronic financial system to disasters and cyberthreats. It has been pointed out that the current framework of the supervisory regulation on electronic financial services, which remained little changed since it was established in 2006, makes it difficult to flexibly respond to evolving security threats and encourage passive responses from financial companies. In particular, there has been a growing need for making financial industrys cybersecurity system more adaptable and resilient in response to technology advances (e.g. artificial intelligence or cloud computing) and evolving cyberthreats. Against this backdrop, the revision proposal is focused on allowing more room for financial companies to make decisions on their own on financial security matters and encouraging them to make more investment in cyber security by making financial security regulations more goal-and-principle oriented. First, the revision proposal reduces the number of rules to 166 from 293 previously to ensure that financial businesses can flexibly respond to new risks. Instead of prescriptive and exhaustive rules, the revised regulations will only present principles and goals and allow financial companies to make decisions on details on their own. For example, the revision proposal abolishes provisions specifying the method of creating users passwords and allows financial companies to adopt their own method of creating passwords and managing authentication system. Second, to bolster cyber resilience against disasters and electronic incidents, the revision proposal introduces requirements for certain types of small- and medium-sized financial companies and el
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Feb 01, 2024
- FSC Seeks to Bolster Cyber and Information Security Capacity and Resilience of Financial Industry
- The Financial Services Commission held a meeting with relevant authorities and financial companies on February 1 and announced plans to bolster cyber and information security capacity and resilience of the financial industry. At the meeting, authorities also unveiled and discussed key details of the revision proposal for the supervisory regulation on electronic financial services, which is put up for public comment until March 12. Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the FSC delivered opening remarks at the meeting, emphasizing on the need to establish a forward-looking cyber and information security system in the financial industry amid rapid changes taking place in digital sphere, such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats. In this regard, Vice Chairman Kim said that it is necessary to focus on making financial industrys cybersecurity system more adaptable and resilient. To this end, the FSC will make the cyber and information security system more goal- and principle-oriented and encourage financial companies to boost their own cybersecurity capacity and bolster resilience to cyberthreats. With the revision of the supervisory regulation being proposed today, Vice Chairman Kim said that the approach to cyber and information security will shift from a narrow and compliance-focused practice of the past to a more comprehensive, proactive and self-driven one. Beginning with this rules change, the FSC will seek to revise the Electronic Financial Transactions Act in the future to strengthen financial companies self-governance responsibility over cyber and information security. Some of the key details of the revision proposal for the supervisory regulation on electronic financial service include (a) making rules simpler and allowing more room to make autonomous decisions for financial companies by reducing the number of rules to 166 from 293 previously, (b) requiring certain types of small- and medium-sized financial comp
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Jan 23, 2024
- FSC Announces a Plan to Improve the Soundness of the Convertible Bond Market
- Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the Financial Services Commission held a meeting with officials from relevant organizations and industry groups and announced a plan to bolster the soundness of the convertible bond (CB) market on January 23. The measures included in the plan are intended to strengthen rules on disclosure of information on the issuance and distribution of convertible bonds, making improvements to the current refixing rules and procedure, and strengthening investigation over unfair trading activities involving CBs. The FSC expects that these measures will help to address the following three oft-cited problems regarding the CB marketthe lack of transparency in the issuance and circulation of CBs, the arbitrariness in the refixing of convertible prices, and the potential misuse in unfair trading activities. In this regard, the FSC has prepared the following three measures to address these problems, taking into account opinions and suggestions raised during the public seminar held on the topic in last July. First, the disclosure of information about the issuance and circulation of CBs will be strengthened to boost transparency in the market. Authorities will seek to ensure that the types of information that can be critical to the corporate governance structure and share valuation, such as information about the entity designated by the company to exercise the call option and the plan for CB selloff close to maturity, are opened up to the public in a more transparent way. Second, the rules and procedure for refixing convertible prices of CBs will be made more reasonable. Current rules set the minimum level of refixing at 70 percent of the initial convertible price and allow companies to refix convertible prices below the minimum level only in exceptional casese.g. corporate restructuringvia securing a special resolution at a general shareholders meeting or through their articles of incorporation. However, some companies have exploited such exceptions to the ru
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Jan 18, 2024
- Strengthened Penalties on Unfair Trading Activities in Capital Markets Take Effect from January 19
- The Financial Services Commission announced that the revised Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (FSCMA) and its subordinate statutes will go into effect on January 19. The revision deals with (a) introducing a penalty surcharge system on unfair trading activities, (b) legislating a method for calculating the amount of unfairly gained profits, and (c) providing a leniency to those reporting violations committed by oneself or others. The revised rules were prepared through close consultation and discussion with the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Prosecutors Office, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Exchange. The authorities expect that the changed rules will help to more effectively detect and prevent unfair trading activities and more strictly apply sanctions on illegitimate activities. First, the revision introduces a penalty surcharge system on unfair trading activities and enables authorities to impose a penalty surcharge of up to twice the amount of unfairly gained profits (maximum KRW4 billion when there is no illicit profit made or it is impossible to calculate an amount). Previously, only criminal penalties were available as a method of sanctioning unfair trading activities, which usually took long time to reach a decision by the court with the strict application of burden of proof. With the introduction of penalty surcharge, a speedier and more effective sanctioning will now be possible on unfair trading activities. In terms of the procedure for imposing a penalty surcharge, in principle, the FSC is able to impose a penalty surcharge after receiving an outcome of investigation from the prosecution service. However, when the matter has been consulted with the prosecution service or if it has been more than a year since the case was first reported to the prosecution service, the FSC is allowed to impose a penalty surcharge even before receiving an investigation outcome from the prosecution service. Second, the revision establi
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Jan 18, 2024
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Jan 10, 2024
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Jan 08, 2024
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Dec 28, 2023
- Authorities Hold Meeting to Discuss Corporate Debt Workout of Taeyoung Engineering and Construction
- The Financial Services Commission held a meeting with the related authorities and financial institution on December 28 to discuss measures to help business normalization of Taeyoung Engineering Construction and minimize the impact as the company filed for a debt workout under the Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act today. Since the turmoil in the real estate project financing (PF) market last year, the government has been closely monitoring market developments and financial conditions of major construction companies. Taeyoung EC has been faced with financial difficulties as it was struggling with refinancing its real estate PF loans and asset-backed securities amid global tightening of monetary policies. In particular, unlike other construction companies, it was found that Taeyoung EC had a high proportion of self-performed projects as well as high levels of debt-to-equity ratio and PF loan guarantees. These factors show particular characteristics of Taeyoung EC, which remain different from other companies situations. In this regard, the authorities at the meeting agreed that there is no possibility of a systemic risk across the construction sector or financial market as long as there is no spread of anxiety. Taeyoung EC has already demonstrated self-rescue efforts by coming up with KRW1 trillion on its own and submitted further plans to sell its subsidiaries and other assets. The company is currently working on its debt workout plan with Korea Development Bank, its main creditor bank, which will work on business normalization of Taeyoung EC based on the companys strong commitment to self-rescue efforts. As of the end of September 2023, there were sixty real estate PF development sites under management of Taeyoung EC. Based on the type and the progress of each project, various arrangements and solutions will be employed to either continue to carry out projects or seek restructuring or sale. At the meeting, Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission