Chairman Jeong Eun-bo: "Value-up Policy Quite Successful... Committed to Continued Implementation"

Jung Eun-bo, Chairman of the Korea Exchange, evaluated the value-up achievements as successful and stated that support will be strengthened to firmly establish the value-up program.

Jung Eun-bo, Chairman of the Korea Exchange, is presenting 'The Exchange's Core Strategy Toward Korea Premium' at the New Year's press conference held in the main conference room of the Korea Exchange Seoul office on the 11th. Photo by Korea Exchange

On the 11th, Chairman Jung Eun-bo held a New Year's press briefing at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido and announced four core strategies and 12 promotion tasks for the 'Korea Premium': ▲achieving capital market value-up ▲securing future growth engines ▲enhancing investor trust ▲strengthening global competitiveness.

Regarding the value-up policy achievements, Chairman Jung said, "I would like to evaluate them as quite successful," adding, "The purpose of the value-up program is to compensate for the 20-30% discount compared to overseas markets due to insufficient transparency in corporate management and protection of individual minority shareholders. Under this premise, I believe it is progressing quite smoothly." He continued, "Last year, many listed companies made shareholder-friendly efforts, resulting in a record increase in treasury stock cancellations and an upward adjustment in dividend payout ratios. In the banking industry, stock prices rose more than in any other sector last year through the value-up policy, which I believe reflects investors' new perceptions and evaluations due to value-up."

There is a plan to continuously strive to provide incentives such as tax benefits to outstanding value-up companies. Chairman Jung said, "Various tax support measures did not pass in the National Assembly last time, but we will provide side support for the passage of tax support-related content proposed by the government," adding, "If necessary, we will also propose additional tax benefits to ensure that companies receive rewards for their efforts toward value-up."

The Korea Exchange plans to open index usage rights from June to be included in global advanced indices and allow overseas listings of Korean bond index derivatives. Chairman Jung explained, "Various institutional improvements have been made so far, and we decided to open the index because market conditions and systems that allow opening the index itself have been established," adding, "We plan to start this in June alongside the introduction of night trading. Especially in the initial stage, by opening it in the night market excluding the regular market, we will absorb and mitigate excessive market shocks at the early stage." He added, "We will gradually expand the indices, trading markets, and trading hours based on future market conditions."

Chairman Jung emphasized the need for discussions on virtual asset exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He said, "In consultation with policy authorities, we need to start official discussions on our virtual asset ETFs in a balanced view that also protects investors, without being too late," adding, "The timing and specific measures will be gradually decided through consultations with policy authorities and various market experts."

Regarding the alternative trading system (ATS) launching on the 4th of next month, he said, "With the launch of ATS, it is expected that the Korea Exchange's revenue model will inevitably shrink to some extent," adding, "As a compensatory measure, we will work to expand various revenue models. Taking the competitive environment as an opportunity, we plan to make necessary improvements such as institutional supplements to operate the exchange market more efficiently and protect investors."