Financial experts rally behind main opposition candidate Yoon

Former financial industry leaders declare their support for the main opposition presidential candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol, at the headquarters of the People Power Party (PPP) located on Yeouido, Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap

By Anna J. Park

A number of former financial industry leaders have declared their official support for main opposition People Power Party (PPP) candidate Yoon Suk-yeol in the upcoming presidential election. They criticize the incumbent Moon administration for having “impaired the country's financial industry.”

A total of 110 former financial industry leaders, including former Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA) chairman Hwang Young-ki, announced their official support for Yoon at the headquarters of the PPP located on Yeouido, Seoul, on Sunday morning. Hwang also served as chairman at both Woori Financial Group as well as KB Financial Group during the 2000s. Former Woori Bank CEO Lee Jong-hwi, former KB Kookmin Bank CEO Min Byung-duk and former NH Nonghyup Bank CEO Kim Ju-ha also joined the move to raise their voices of support for conservative party candidate Yoon.

“We couldn't sit idly by anymore, while the Moon administration and the ruling party put the entire nation in distress with their failed policies,” their statement read. “Hoping to change the incumbent administration at the election, we ardently support presidential candidate Yoon, who pledges to transform Korea into a place where fairness and trust thrive,” the statement continued.

The main rationale behind the group's criticisms of the Moon administration is that the government failed properly to supervise financial markets, resulting in a number of ill-designed problematic fund products and accompanying financial fiascos such as the Lime, Optimus and Discovery scandals. Such financial calamities wreaked havoc mostly on retail investors.

They also denounced the incumbent government for failing at managing the country's real estate policies, the snowballing debt of small business owners and the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

“With the domestic stock market being stimulated, the number of retail investors who wish to increase their assets through the market has also grown. Yet, the Moon administration has been incompetent in advancing the country's capital markets, failing at accomplishing the investors' wishes. The government has also been avoiding taking appropriate measures to protect investors,” their statement stressed.

The group members urged the next administration to take proactive measures to advance the local financial market, proposing specific policy recommendations, such as reducing the level of regulations in financial markets while strengthening consumer protections, supplying longer-term mortgage products for housing, as well as promoting Korea as an international financial hub by advancing its capital markets to global standards.

This instance is not the first time that former financial industry leaders have declared support for Yoon. Earlier last week, a group of 1,150 people from the financial and economic sectors declared their official support for Yoon. They include KPMG Korea former CEO Yoon Sung-bok and Nexia Samduk former CEO Kwon Oh-hyung.