South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced Tuesday it will "actively operate the 100 trillion won-plus market stabilization program and expand it if necessary" amid continued financial market volatility caused by Middle East instability.
Shin Jin-chang, Secretary General of the FSC, convened a meeting at the Seoul Government Complex with the Financial Supervisory Service, Korea Exchange, Korea Development Bank, and Industrial Bank of Korea to assess financial market conditions related to the Middle East situation.
The meeting reviewed the implementation status and plans for President Lee Jae-myung's directives. "Actively operate the 100 trillion won-plus market stabilization program currently running to stabilize the bond market, money market, and real estate project financing (PF) market," Shin said. "Make thorough preparations to quickly expand the market stabilization program if necessary."
He particularly urged thorough preparation for potential corporate funding difficulties should Middle East instability become prolonged.
Policy financial institutions including Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, and Export-Import Bank of Korea plan to operate a 20.3 trillion won financial support program without disruption. "We are applying liability exemptions for staff handling new liquidity provisions and extensions of existing loans and guarantees," Shin said. "Provide active support to minimize corporate liquidity difficulties."
The FSC also committed to consistently pursuing governance improvements and policies to eradicate unfair trading practices for capital market advancement. It reaffirmed its principle of closely monitoring and strictly punishing market disruption activities such as wash trading and fake news dissemination exploiting market anxiety.
"We will hold daily financial market task force meetings and share the situation with relevant agencies until financial markets stabilize," an FSC official said. "The 24-hour monitoring system will also continue operating."