Lee to Meet CEOs of Financial Firms
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bank will meet with chief executives of banks and leading securities and insurance companies Wednesday to discuss conglomerates ownership of banks and other financial issues.
During the meeting at the Korean Federation of Banks building in Seoul, Lee is expected to come up with plans to sell government stakes in public financial firms and ease financial market instability.
Lee did not invite any bureaucrat-turned CEOs and heads of state-owned banks.
``Lee only wants to talk with the presidents of private financial firms who have no experience in government agencies,'' said Rep. Joo Ho-young of the Grand National Party, a spokesman for Lee. ``It is not because Lee doesn't like bureaucrats, but because he wants to listen to voices from the private sector to set up better polices for them.''
Participants include Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Seung-yu, Lee's college alumni; Kookmin Bank President Kang Cheong-won; Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Ra Eung-chan; Woori Bank President Park Hae-choon; Korea Exchange Bank President Richard Wacker; Citibank Korea President Ha Yung-ku; and SC First Bank President David Edwards.
Mirae Asset Management Group Chairman Park Hyun-joo, Daewoo Securities President Kim Seong-tae and Samsung Life Insurance President Lee Soo-chang will also attend the gathering.
It will be the first time for a President-elect to meet CEOs of financial firms since former President Kim Dae-jung did in 1998. At the time, Kim called for the need for mergers between financial firms and more foreign investment.
Speculation is mounting over why CEOs of state-owned banks didn't make the list. Bank officials say they did not understand why Lee didn't invite them considering their influence on the financial sector.
Some forecast Lee will come up with his ideas of privatizing state-owned lenders and easing rules on conglomerates' ownership of banks.
On Monday, Lee's policymakers said the presidential transition team and the Ministry of Finance and Economy agreed to combine Korea Development Bank's investment banking unit with Daewoo Securities and then sell it to private investors.
They said the sale of the KDB will generate about 60 trillion won, and with the money the next government will set up the so-called Korea Investment Fund to provide about 20 trillion won in loans to small businesses.
During his presidential campaign, President-elect Lee stressed the need to sell government properties to private firms, saying public firms are operating without proper supervision and that their size has become excessively large.