By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter
Special interest groups for three sectors in the capital market ― securities, asset management and futures ― will begin dialogue on merging into a single giant association.
The Korea Securities Dealers Association, the Asset Management Association of Korea and the Korea Futures Association are preparing for talks on merging in line with the Capital Market Consolidation Act, which takes effect next year.
Financial authorities have recommended that the three groups merge since the law will remove business barriers among the three sectors.
Deregulation will no longer require separate associations representing investment companies on the capital market.
Analysts expressed worry, however, over the merger process considering the differences in size of each association.
Of the three, the biggest is the securities association, a lobbying group for brokerages, with assets of 220 billion won. It also has the highest number of brokerage members with abundant equity capital.
The asset management association is the second largest with assets of 30 billion won, followed by the futures body with four billion won.
Market watchers warned that the securities association will exert excessive influence over the other two bodies in the consolidation process or after the merger.
The union of the asset management association urged fair and balanced talks on the merger.
``The consolidation committee should engage in a discussion fair and equal for the three interest bodies,'' the union said in a statement. ``It should also aim to create a balanced governance structure and human resources.''
The committee consists of officials and executives from the three associations, the regulatory body and academics.
Should the merger go through, however, a consolidated association will become bigger than the Korea Federation of Banks, a lobbying group for the banking industry, analysts said.
The committee aims to merge the three before the implementation of the capital market act in February.