FSC vice chair to promote 'value-up' initiative in Singapore, Thailand
Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Kim So-young / Yonhap
Financial Services Commission (FSC) Vice Chairman Kim So-young will meet with foreign investors in Singapore and Thailand next week to promote its corporate “value-up” initiative outlined to reinvigorate the chronically stagnant local bourse, market watchers said Tuesday.
The financial policy drive of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration seeks to attract and retain a larger number of foreign institutional investors, as underpinned by higher shareholder returns, incentives for strong performance of undervalued stocks and the development of derivatives that track low-popularity shares.
Also to be discussed are Korea’s move to scrap capital gains tax on stock trading and short selling ban enforced to eradicate the illegal practice of naked short selling.
The plan is the authorities' latest investor relations efforts. Financial Supervisory Service (FSC) Chairman Lee Bok-hyun's visited Singapore and London last year.
Kim will embark on the four-day trip on Feb. 26. He will be accompanied by senior officials from the Korea Exchange (KRX) and the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) in Singapore. The financial hub country hosts regional offices of several top-tier global players.
A roundtable of investors will be held in Singapore on Feb. 26, coinciding with the financial policymakers' plan to unveil details of the value-up initiative in Korea.
Kim will address the issue of scrapping taxes on stock gains. Foreign institutional investors will be exempt from these measures. However, this effort underscores the country's commitment to fostering an environment conducive to long-term and robust investment, encompassing both retail and large-scale investors.
The vice chair will also share the authorities’ plans to guarantee easier access to the local financial market for foreign capital, despite the short selling ban.
Some market watchers from within the country and abroad have long criticized the ban as falling behind global standards, but the FSC pushed ahead citing the Korean capital market’s lack of stern measures to penalize illegal practices.
The more investor-friendly regulatory revisions become, the more foreign capital will be funneled into the local bourse, in Kim’s view. This is a virtuous cycle whereby the persistent challenge of the “Korea discount” will be fundamentally resolved.
In Thailand, Kim will meet with Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput and Ruenvadee Sawanmongkol, head of the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to bolster cooperation between the two countries. The vice chair will address Korean entities’ challenges of operating financial services in the Southeast Asian country.