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Mar 31, 2020
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Mar 30, 2020
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Mar 30, 2020
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Mar 27, 2020
- Vice Chairman Emphasizes Importance of Effective Implementation of COVID-19 Financial Support
- FSC Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo held a meeting on March 27 via conference call to examine the implementation of the government’s COVID-19 emergency support package and financial market stabilization measures.The following is a summary of Vice Chairman Sohn’s remarks:► FINANCING SUPPORT: Low-rate loans (1.5%) at local banks as well as maturity extensions on existing loans and deferment of interest payments will be available through all financial institutions beginning on April 1.► ON-SITE COMMUNICATION: Beginning on April 6, the FSC’s emergency financial situation room along with other relevant institutions will operate a regular on-site communication and inspection channel through conference calls or on-site visits in order to help resolve difficulties on the ground.► MARKET STABILIZATION FUNDS: On March 24, the size of the initial capital call has been decided at KRW3 trillion to launch a bond market stabilization fund, which will be expanded up to KRW20 trillion afterwards. The corporate bond purchase will start as early as April 2. A stock market stabilization fund in the amount of KRW760 billion was launched on March 25 by the Korea Exchange, the Korea Financial Investment Association, the Korea Securities Depository and the Korea Securities Finance Corp. In addition, KRW10 trillion more will be made available by the financial institutions in the private sector in the second week of April.► SHORT-TERM MONEY MARKETS: Between March 24 and 26, the Bank of Korea and the Korea Securities Finance Corp. made available approximately KRW3.5 trillion in short-term liquidity to the securities companies. On March 30, the policy banks will begin purchasing commercial paper, electronic short-term bonds and short-term credit bonds. A CP purchasing operation will be undertaken collectively by the Korea Development Bank and the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.FINANCIAL SUPPORT PROVIDEDBetween February 7 and March 24, a total of KRW13.4 trillion (152,000 individual case
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Mar 27, 2020
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Mar 26, 2020
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Mar 25, 2020
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Mar 24, 2020
- Measures to Stabilize Financial Markets
- The government unveiled the financial market stabilization measures on March 24 to help provide sufficient liquidity to businesses and deploy market stability tools to absorb shocks in the financial markets amid the spread of COVID-19.In order to address financing difficulties and help restore stability in the financial markets, the measures will increase the financing support package from KRW50 trillion to more than KRW100 trillion. This includes financing support through policy banks in the amount of KRW58.3 trillion and KRW41.8 trillion funds to help restore stability in the country’s bond market, stock market and short-term money markets.FINANCIAL MARKET CONDITIONSThe concern over a global economic slowdown due to the spread of COVID-19 has brought market volatility in the global financial markets, thus limiting corporate financing channels. From the beginning of March, stock prices in major economies plunged and the won-dollar exchange rate spiked due to a strong dollar.Amid rising uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19, market anxiety has expanded to the corporate bond market and short-term money markets.Unlike the past financial crises, the downturn in the financial markets today started from the real economy — an abrupt slowdown in consumption, production and investment, a breakdown in global supply chains, and a drop in global trade.Due to the decline in domestic demand, a contraction in the real economy and financial market anxieties, it remains difficult to accurately predict the ripple effects of the current economic slowdown caused by COVID-19. Thus, preemptive and bold responses are required to bring stability to the markets.KEY MEASURESI. FINANCING SUPPORT FOR BUSINESSES: KRW58.3 TRILLIONA total of KRW 29.2 trillion in financing support for SMEs and small merchants will be provided.► KRW12.0 trillion in emergency financing support for small merchants► KRW5.5 trillion in special guarantees for SMEs and small merchants► KRW3.0 trillion in full
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Mar 24, 2020
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Mar 23, 2020
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Mar 23, 2020
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Mar 23, 2020
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Mar 22, 2020
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Mar 20, 2020
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Mar 20, 2020
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Mar 20, 2020
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Mar 19, 2020
- Government Announces Additional Financial Support for SMEs and Small Merchants
- The government unveiled on March 19, 2020 additional financial support measures aimed at helping the SMEs and small merchants better cope with the burden of economic slowdown amid the COVID-19 outbreak. This is part of the KRW50 trillion package program announced by the government today to better deal with the impact of the outbreak.COVID-19 FINANCIAL SUPPORTThe government unveiled financial support programs1 targeted at the SMEs and small merchants directly hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. The measures including i) extensions on the existing loans and guarantees, ii) new loans and special credit guarantees, and iii) discounts on interest rates and fees, deferment of payments, export-import financing are currently being implemented.Since the first round of financial support was announced on February 7, about KRW6.4 trillion (81,000 individual cases) was provided to mostly small merchants (68,000 cases, 84%). About 19,000 of them were restaurant businesses and 14,000 retail businesses. About 35,000 cases consisted of loan and guarantee extensions whereas newly issued loans and guarantees made up 46,000 cases. In order to continue to provide a sufficient level of financial support, the government has prepared a KRW12 trillion supplementary budget.ADDITIONAL MEASURESI. EXPANDING FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR SMES AND SMALL MERCHANTS HIT BY COVID-19► MATURITY EXTENSION: A minimum of six-month extension on existing loans and guarantees will be provided by all banking and non-banking sectors, including savings banks, insurance companies and credit card companies. The extension will also be applied to deferred payment products and guaranteed loans.► DEFERMENT OF INTEREST PAYMENT: All financial institutions and microfinance institutions will offer a six-month deferment on interest payments for products with maturity date of September 30 or thereafter. The government will review measures to support financial institutions if they face liquidity problems.► FULL GUARANTEES FOR SMALL
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Mar 18, 2020
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Mar 18, 2020
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Mar 17, 2020
- Revision Act on Crypto Assets Passes at Cabinet Meeting
- The revision to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information was approved at a cabinet meeting on March 17, 2020. This revision act will place Korea’s legal framework on crypto assets more in line with international standards set forth by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and strengthen its AML/CFT regime.BACKGROUNDAmid growing concerns about the use of crypto assets in money laundering and other illegal activities, the FATF and the G20 worked on a revision to the international standards and urged each country to adopt the revision. The Korean government introduced a revision bill in November last year to reflect this change, and following the passage of the revision act by the National Assembly on March 5 this year, the government approved the revision act at a cabinet meeting today.KEY FEATURESI. REQUIREMENTS FOR CRYPTO ASSET BUSINESS OPERATORSCrypto-asset business operators will be a) required to report their transactions to the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), b) subject to basic AML requirements (e.g. customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting, etc.), and c) bound to follow additional obligations such as keeping separate transaction details for users.II. REQUIREMENTS FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSFinancial institutions dealing with crypto-asset business operators will be required to conduct customer due diligence on crypto-asset business operators and check whether they report their business tow KoFIU and maintain customer deposits in a separate account.If crypto-asset business operators fail to report to the KoFIU or are deemed as high-risk for money laundering, financial institutions are obliged to refuse (or terminate) such transactions. III. SUPERVISION INSPECTIONThe KoFIU will oversee the supervision and may delegate the authority of inspection to the Financial Supervisory Service.The revision bill will take effect one year after promulgation, and the current crypto-asset business operators will be g