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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
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Mar 17, 2020
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Mar 13, 2020
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Mar 13, 2020
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Mar 12, 2020
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Mar 12, 2020
- Vice Chairman Holds Meeting to Assess Progress of COVID-19 Financing Support
- FSC Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo convened a meeting on March 12, 2020 to assess the implementation of the financing support for the SMEs and small merchants hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.PROGRESSBetween February 7 and March 10, a total of KRW4.6346 trillion (60,813 individual cases) in loans and guarantees as well as loan and guarantee extensions were provided to the SMEs, small merchants and self-employed business owners whose businesses have been hit by the spread of COVID-19► Financing by type: KRW 2.0633 trillion (32,309 cases) in new loans, KRW 2.406 trillion (25,393 cases) in maturity extensions and deferred payments, and KRW 165.3 billion (3,111 cases) in export-import credit finance, discounted interest rates and late fees and deferment of interest payment► Financing by industry: KRW703.9 billion to wholesale businesses, KRW499.8 billion to restaurant businesses and KRW485.3 billion to retail businesses► Financing by provider: KRW2.7892 trillion (42,693 cases) by policy banks, KRW1.8454 trillion (18,120 cases) by private financial institutions FURTHER PLANSThe FSC will work to maintain stability in the financial system amid the spread of COVID-19. As for call centers, the group training will be refrained. While continuing to improve the business continuity plans, the government will encourage financial institutions to draw up additional response plans to help contain the spread of COVID-19.* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Mar 11, 2020
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Mar 11, 2020
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Mar 10, 2020
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Mar 10, 2020
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Mar 06, 2020
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Mar 05, 2020
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Mar 05, 2020
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Mar 04, 2020