Seoul: The head of South Korea's financial watchdog has vowed to push ahead with a series of steps to boost fairness and transparency in the capital markets, as well as shareholder value, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Tuesday. In a meeting with dozens of bankers and financiers in Hong Kong on Monday, FSS Gov. Lee Bok-hyun stated that Korea's financial authorities will continue to carry out policy priorities for the capital markets based on solid fundamentals and strong resilience of the country's economy.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the country lifted its ban on short selling for all stocks for the first time in five years last month. "This represents the Korean financial authorities' firm commitment to market predictability and investor confidence, and I can assure you that it will stay this way going forward," Lee said.
Lee emphasized that South Korea has worked to enhance shareholders' interests and corporate values as a key priority under capital market initiatives, which include new legal safeguards to better protect shareholders, partly by fine-tuning stock delisting rules. He stressed that efforts to lay a more effective legal basis and framework for better protecting shareholders' interests are under way, referring to a proposed revision of the Commercial Act.
Additionally, Lee mentioned that more steps have been taken to improve foreign investors' access to the country's capital markets.