Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman: "Capital Market Changes Insufficient with Institutional Improvements Alone"

Kim So-young, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said on the 19th, "It is insufficient to expect significant changes in the market solely through improvements in the capital market system," adding, "The effects of system improvements can be felt when they lead to changes in market behavior."

Kim So-young, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, is delivering opening remarks at the 'Financial Investment Industry Roundtable' held on the 19th at the Korea Financial Investment Association in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

On the same day, Vice Chairman Kim held a roundtable with the financial investment industry at the Korea Financial Investment Association in Yeouido, Seoul, and made these remarks. The event was organized to explain the current status and plans for the capital market system improvements that the government has been working on and to gather opinions from the market.

Vice Chairman Kim emphasized, "Even with system improvements, if the capital market does not gain investors' trust, it is important for the industry itself to strengthen internal controls to eradicate unfair trading such as illegal short selling and unhealthy business practices, and to make self-purification efforts."

So far, the Financial Services Commission has promoted measures such as English disclosures and dividend system improvements to enhance foreign investors' accessibility to the domestic securities market. Additional improvement plans, including convertible bonds and treasury stock system reforms, are being prepared to strengthen the protection of common shareholders.

At the event, industry representatives suggested to the Financial Services Commission that "the government's efforts to improve the capital market system have not yet been sufficiently communicated to major overseas institutional investors," and recommended "more active overseas investor relations (IR) meetings and expanded provision of major disclosures in English."

The Financial Services Commission plans to hold seminars for a larger number of market participants starting next month, beginning with this roundtable.