Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Financial authorities to ease regulations on overseas business expansion
Financial Services Commission (FSC) Vice Chairman Kim So-young speaks during a meeting in central Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of FSC
By Anna J. Park
Comprehensive regulatory improvement for overseas business to be announced in July
By Anna J. Park
The Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country's top financial regulator, vowed to ease regulations related to financial companies' overseas operations, aiming to raise the Korean financial sector's global competitiveness. The move is the result of a series of seminars hosted this year by the FSC and financial firms on the theme of improving the strength of the local financial sector globally.
“The FSC will broadly ease regulations related to the establishment of overseas subsidiaries by financial companies to support their global competitiveness in acquisition and expansion in overseas markets,” FSC Vice Chairman Kim So-young said during a roundtable meeting on Monday afternoon.
In attendance at Monday's meeting were representatives of financial authorities, including the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), as well as business associations of the banking, insurance, investment and fintech industries.
The FSC vice chief also vowed to improve the process of raising funds for overseas subsidiaries from parent companies. The authorities also plan to apply regulations drawn for domestic applications flexibly for overseas business operations.
The vice chairman stressed that the financial sector must reach out to global markets, to secure new growth engines for the economy.
“The entire exports of Korean financial and insurance services constitute only about 3 percent of the country's service exports. It is far lower than the U.K.'s 18 percent and the OECD average of 11.9 percent. Still, Korean financial firms and fintech businesses have a great potential in increasing their business scope in overseas markets,” Kim said.
He also said the top regulator plans to lower the burden of excessive requirements. “The authorities plan to merge overlapping or excessive reporting and disclosure regulations while shifting to post-reporting,” he said.
In addition, the financial regulator seeks to solve difficulties borne by financial companies' overseas business expansion by improving networks with diplomatic offices and international organizations.
The top regulator plans to announce regulatory improvement measures by the end of July.
The banking association explained that local banks operate more than 200 branches in 43 countries as of the end of last year. Even though some banks garner around 20 percent of their net profit from overseas branches, the overall globalization level of local banks still lags behind that of their European or U.S. peers.
With regard to the investment sector, 14 securities firms operate 66 overseas branches in 13 countries, while 29 asset managers run 70 overseas branches in 13 countries. The offices, however, are mostly concentrated in the Asian region, the investment association said.