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Oct 27, 2014
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Jul 15, 2014
- Plan to Improve License System for Financial Investment Business
- The FSC announced its plan to ease regulations on license system for financial investment business, which includes integrating business units for license, currently overly subdivided, and simplifying license process.KEY DIRECTION1. Improve License System for Financial Investment BusinessIn principle, financial investment businesses will be required to apply for a business license for only when it first enters the sector. The number of business units for regulatory approval will be cut from the current 42 to 13(see the table below). Once a financial institution is granted a regulatory approval for business(①~⑬), the company will be allowed to add new business within the same sector simply through add-on registration, without any additional procedure for approval.How business units for regulatory approval will change* Please refer tothe chartin the attached PDF. Regulations regarding majority shareholders will be also revised. - (Current) Person not allowed to participate in business management due to spinoff is classified as a “specially related person” under the Financial Investment Business and Capital Markets Act(FSCMA ), which unreasonably restricts such person from becoming a major shareholder. - (Revision) If the Fair Trade Commission confirms the person not participating in management due to spinoff, the person will not be classified as a “specially related person”. - (Current) A financial firm issued with sanctions equal to or stronger than institutional warning within the ‘recent three years’ is banned from becoming a largest shareholder of a financial investment company. - (Revision) For institutional warning, the period will be shortened to from the current three years to the recent one year.Other procedural regulations on license or registration will be eased or improved. - (Current) Under the current practice, a financial investment company issued with sanctions equal to or stronger than institutional warning is suspended from applying fo
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Jun 23, 2014
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Jun 19, 2014
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Mar 11, 2014
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Feb 04, 2014
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Jan 29, 2014
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Jan 24, 2014
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Jan 22, 2014
- Measures to Prevent a Recurrence of Personal Data Breach
- The FSC and relevant ministries1announced a set of preventive measures to protect financial consumers from personal data breach. The measures are focused on alleviating people’s concerns and inconvenience caused by the recent data leaks; punishing those responsible for the incident; and preventing a recurrence of data theft.BACKGROUNDProsecutors announced (Jan.8 /Jan.19/Jan.21) that about 100 million credit card account details were leaked from Kookmin Card, Nonghyup Card and Lotte Card2 by a contractor with the personal credit rating company Korea Credit Bureau (KCB) over the course of a year beginning in December 2012. The contractor and the alleged buyers of the information were arrested; and the original files and USB of the stolen data were confiscated with no sign of further circulation.The FSS received the data from prosecutors (Jan.10) and found that about 85 million accounts were compromised in total, excluding the number of cards held by the deceased, companies or merchants, although overlaps in multiple cardholders were included.The stolen data includes basic personal data such as names, resident registration numbers, addresses, mobile phone numbers and company names, as well as financial information such as credit card numbers, account numbers, expiry dates and annual income. However, no passwords or CVC codes3 had been stolen.MEASURES TO EASE CONCERNS AND INCONVENIENCE FROM THE INCIDENTThe three credit companies said that there had been no financial damage reported so far related to the breach. The FSS found that sensitive information such as credit card passwords or CVC codes was not included in the stolen data. Credit card companies will cover any financial damage incurred by fraudulent transactions.They will provide a service for free that sends text message notifications for each card transaction to mobile phones. KCB will provide a privacy protection service for one year to anyone who asks for it.Regulators will consider additional identity valid
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Jan 20, 2014
- TF Formed to Respond to Personal Information Leaks
- The FSC formed a task force (T/F) to respond to the recent leakage of personal information on credit card holders and held its first meeting on January 17 to discuss how to prevent consequences of the incident from spreading and seek for fundamental measures to prevent a repeat of such an incident.BACKGROUNDProsecutors announced on January 8 that personal information of credit card holders were leaked by an employee of an outsourcing company of three credit card companies.The stolen data does not include credit cards’ pass word or CVC code; therefore, it is very unlikely that the leaked information might be misused for financial frau d. Prosecutors also judged that there was no further leakage of the stolen data as they arrested those who had stolen the information and first distributed. There has been no case yet reported as direct damage of the incident.MAJOR CONTENTS OF DISCUSSION1. Measures to prevent further leaks and remedies for those affectedThe card companies will identify details as soon as possible about how and when personal information was leaked and will inform affected customers via SMS, phone, e-mail, and respective financial company’s website.To prevent further damages, the three credit card companies will issue new credit cards to the victims upon request, provide free credit card payment notification SMS service(temporary service), and ban other financial companies subordinated to their mother group from using customers’ private information when promoting their products.Moreover, the responsible credit card firms will operate 24-hour call center, damage control team, and hot line with the FS S to immediately respond to further damages. Respective credit card companies will provide financial reimbursements to the victims of further damage.The FSS is verifying the details of the accident based on information received from the prosecutors. Damages from the data leak will be responded and normalized in a swift manner. The FSS will respond to the
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Sep 16, 2013
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Jul 07, 2013
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Jun 26, 2013
- Plan for Privatization of Woori Finance Holdings
- BACKGROUNDThe Public Funds Oversight Committee (PFOC) announced the privatization plan for Woori Finance Holdings after its 78th meeting on June 26, 2013. The Committee members shared common opinion that prompt privatization of Woori Finance Holdings is crucial for recovering the injected public fund and establishing a firm foundation to strengthen our financial industry’s competitiveness. The plan was devised based on the recent market conditions and investment climate.GENERAL PLAN1. General DirectionThe government will sell subsidiary units of Woori Finance Holdings in separate deals to better serve market demands. The 14 subsidiaries of Woori Finance Holdings will be split into three groups for sale. The sale process of each group will be proceeded by the KDIC or Woori Finance Holdings. To facilitate the sale process, the government will simultaneously proceed with the spinoff/merger and the sale process.2. Detailed PlanA. (Regional bank unit) The government will spinoff Woori Finance Holdings to set up Kyongnam Finance Holdings and Kwangju Finance Holdings. The two regional banks, Kyungnam Bank and Kwangju Bank, will be merged with their respective holding companies for sale. The KDIC will sell its 56.7% stake in the two regional banks.B. (Brokerage unit) Sale of Woori Finance Holding’s stake in Woori Investment Securities Co.3, Woori FI, and Woori Financial Group will be initiated concurrently with the sale of regional bank unit.C. (Woori bank unit) Woori Bank will be merged with the remaining Woori Finance Holdings and sold by the KDIC as a bank. Such procedure will be initiated after completing regional bank units’ spinoff and deciding the final bidder of brokerage unit. Minimum bidding level will be decided later with market conditions upon initiation of Woori Finance Holdings’ sale process taken into consideration.* Woori Credit Card, Woori Private Equity Co., Woori FIS Co., Kumho Investment Bank, Woori Finance Research Institute and unsold subsidia
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Mar 21, 2013
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Mar 08, 2013
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Feb 26, 2013
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Feb 12, 2013
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Jan 29, 2013
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Dec 12, 2012
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Dec 06, 2012
- First Annual Status Report on the Hedge Fund Industry
- RECENT TRENDThe total asset size of Korea’s hedge fund market has grown to KRW 1 trillion with 12 active management companies with 19 registered funds in a year since it started from KRW 149 billion with 9 fund management companies with 12 funds. (unit: KRW 1 billion) Dec 2011 Mar 2012 Jun 2012 Sept 2012 Nov 2012 total assets 2,370 5,509 6,546 7,858 10,175 (percentage*) (0.2%) (0.5%) (0.6%) (0.7%) (0.8%) no. of funds 12 17 19 20 19 (no. of mgmt (9) (11) (11) (12) (12) companies) * Percentage of asset size of hedge funds out of the total private equity industryHedge funds’ management strategy and investors have been diversified for the last year. Most of hedge funds still rely on long- short strategies; however, the industry plans to sell funds using a variety of strategies such as arbitrage trading and event-driven strategies.Investors’ pool is widening from prime brokers and affiliated companies with brokerage firms in the early stage to institutional investors and affluent retail investors.EVALUATIONThe hedge fund industry made a soft landing in Korea’s capital markets, dismissing initial concerns that the introduction of hedge funds might increase market risks. Hedge fund managers are building their reputation in the market with differentiated performance. As track records of funds with good performance build up, the size of assets under management for such funds is expected to increase.With improved market perceptions about hedge funds, investors’ pool is expected to be expanded to corporations and pension funds.POLICY DIRECTION AHEADIn order to attract capable managers, requirements for approving hedge fund management were relaxed as announced in July 2012. With the eased requirements, the approval process will be completed for asset managers that submit application in December by the end of this year.It is expected a total of 23 firms including 12 asset management companies, 5 brokerage firms and 6 advisory firms will submit application for hedge fun