FSC Chmn. Kim Stresses Stabilization of Financial Market

Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) gives his inaugural speech as he took office as the 9th chairman of FSC at the Government Complex in Seoul on July 11. (Photos: FSC)

Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) attached top priority to stabilizing the financial market.

As overall uncertainties in the economic and financial markets have expanded, related ministries, the Bank of Korea, FSC, the Financial Supervisory Commission and financial institutions plan to form a taskforce to cope with uncertainties.

FSC Chairman Kim said, “All available policy means will be mobilized to minimize damages to cope with an inflation that gets under way of late.” He made the remarks as he took office as the 9th chairman of FSC at the Government Complex in Seoul on July 11.

“As I think of what roles our people expect financing and FSC to play ahead of my inauguration, I will make efforts to stabilize the financial market, embrace the underprivileged, reinvent the financial industry and support the stability of the financial market for continued growth of the real economy.”

“Current market anxieties are caused by multiple factors, such as the international political situation. It is not easy to predict what direction they evolve in the future and when they are stabilized,” Kim said.

“Rising prices, interest rate hikes and declining asset prices have weighed down low-income people, small businesses and youth,” Chairman Kim said. FSC will prioritize supporting the underprivileged bracket,” he said.

Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) gives his inaugural speech as he took office as the 9th chairman of FSC at the Government Complex in Seoul on July 11.

Financial institutions will implement loans, such as a new fund to ease the financial difficulties self-employed businessmen and small merchants experience, and stabilize low-income people and youth’s housing and livelihood.

Chairman Kim said FSC will lend an ear to voices in the filed through a taskforce designed to cope with the financial difficulties of the underprivileged and implement additional steps to make up for the insufficient conventional policies.

Chairman Kim warned stringent measures against crimes such as illegal financing and voice fishing.

Kim also spoke of reinventing he financial industry. He said FSC would look into regulations that might delay the innovation of Korean financial institutions and any discrimination suffered compared to foreign big tech companies.

Kim added that separation of industrial and financial capital and specialized banking will be dramatically overhauled, regardless of the past’s convention.

Chairman Kim believes that liquidity in the financial circle ought to flow into innovation sectors instead of staying in safe assets to maintain continued growth of the real economy and buttress the stability of the financial market.

Kim said policy financing will play part of pump-priming for drawing market money into key future sectors such as carbon neutrality and economic security and high-stakes areas such as the restructuring of global supply chains.

President Yoon Suk-yeol presented a certificate of appointment to FSC Chairman Kim on the same day without a parliamentary hearing. The ruling and opposition parties have been at loggerheads with the operation of the National Assembly.

FSC Chairman Kim, born in 1958, graduated from Seoul Jungang High School, Seoul National University Economic Department and SNU Business School. He obtained an MBA from University of Washington.

Chairman Kim passed the 25th higher administrative examination and entered the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and held major posts in FSC and the Financial Supervisory Commission.

FSC Considers Temporary Ban on Short Selling

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) would consider temporarily banning short selling in connection with rising liquidity of the Korean stock market, FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun said on July 11.

In a meeting with reports upon his inauguration as FSC chairman, Chairman Kim said, “If the market situation changes dramatically, foreign governments ban short selling in the case it is necessary.”

Individual investors’ demand for a short selling ban have mounted in the wake of greater market certainties, such as the Kospi taking a nosedive. In the first half of the year, FSC sought to fully resume short selling.

But FSC Chairman Kim’s remark may be interpreted as FSC’s signal to back down from its initial position.