:: Issue Analyses

Korea and face a new era of cooperation in finance

Dr. Lim Ho-yeol Chief Representative of Office, Bank of Korea

ince 2008 Korea, China and have been operating about 50 intergovernmental consultation channels, including summit meetings, and more than a hundred cooperative projects. With S the establishment of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) in in 2011, financial cooperation among the three countries entered the stage of institutionalization. Korean and Chinese commercial banks had entered each other’s country from early on to support business activities in currency finance. Now, financial cooperation is expanding at the central bank level: in 2012 the Bank of Korea (BOK) received a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) license from the Chinese government and began investing in China’s stock market; BOK was also granted a quota by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to invest in China’s bond market. In the future, the two countries will expand cooperation in various other fields, including cross-border trade settlements in their respective currencies, and investment in each other’s sovereign bonds.

79 Winter 2012�POSRI Chindia Quarterly ○● Korean and Chinese financial institutions continue to enter each other’s markets Since the Chinese government first allowed foreign banks to enter China in 1990, and opened yuan business to foreign banks in 1996, Korean financial institutions have rushed to enter China. At the writing of this article, in November 2012, many Korean banks have developed their operations in the Chinese market: Hana Bank, Woori Bank, Shinhan Bank, and Kookmin Bank (KB) have set up their headquarters in Beijing, and Bank (KEB) and Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), in Tianjin. Korea Development Bank (KDB), on the other hand, is operating through its branch offices in China. Meanwhile, Korean securities companies have opened 12 offices to venture into China’s securities market. The presence of other Korean financial institutions in China includes the local subsidiaries of four companies and the recent entry of capital companies. Let us take a look at the business activities of Korean financial institutions in China. Due to the strict regulation of the loan-deposit rate (must not exceed 75%), and the increase in bad debts in the wake of the global financial crisis, Korean banks have seen their profits shrink. With the total assets of each Korean bank valued at less than USD 3 billion, the size and scale of Korean banks are minor, compared to Chinese banks. China’s insurance industry has increased at an average annual rate of 25% since 2000 to become the world’s sixth largest market in 2011. China’s insurance business is evaluated to have great potential for growth. However, the first Korean insurers that entered the Chinese market hold only 0.1% of the market share. Moreover, most of their business is limited to Korean companies and Korean residents in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. In order for Korean banks to succeed in localization, they should actively pursue various measures including: merger and acquisition of local small- and medium-sized banks; equity investment and business alliances

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Korean financial institutions in China

Type Local subsidiary Branch office Liaison office Total

Bank 6 68 (6) 5 79 Securities - - 12 12 Insurance 4 (1) 10 (4) 12 26 Total 10 (1) 78 (10) 29 117 Note: Based on data available at the end of Nov. 2012; ( ) indicates applications for establishment in progress Source: Bank of Korea

with commercial banks in urban and rural areas; expansion of business networks to central and western China; and expansion of the and business operation in response to urbanization and income growth. China’s financial market has recently been opening up faster than at any other time in the past. For example, China opened compulsory traffic accident insurance to foreign insurers in May 2012, and accelerated the deregulation of securities firms jointly owned by domestic and foreign interests. Under such circumstances, Korean securities and insurance firms should immediately devise measures to gain “first-mover advantage” and capture a major share of the Chinese markets. On the other hand, the state-owned banks of China─Industrial and of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC), and Bank of Communications (BC)─have branch offices in Korea primarily serving Chinese clients. The Agricultural Bank of China has also recently opened an office in Korea.

○● Financial institutions still at the early stage of investment in China At the end of 2002, China adopted the QFII scheme to allow authorized foreign institutional investors to invest in Class A shares and bonds listed on

81 Winter 2012�POSRI Chindia Quarterly Korea’s QFII quota approved by China

QFII institution Approval date Amount

BOK 2012.3 USD 300 mil. Samsung Asset Management 2008.11~2010.9 USD 300 mil. Mirae Asset Financial Group 2008.9~2010.7 USD 250 mil. Korea Investment Management 2012.3 USD 200 mil. Others (13 institutions) 2008.5~2012.10 USD 895 mil.

Note: Based on data available at the end of Oct. 2012 Source: China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)

China’s domestic stock exchanges, which had been reserved exclusively for domestic investors. From 2008 to October 2012, the Chinese government approved 17 Korean financial institutions to invest approximately USD 2.2 billion in Class A shares. Currently, 200 foreign institutional investors have been granted QFIIs. In July 2012, China raised the QFII quota ceiling to USD 80 billion. Regulations of QFII are increasingly relaxed: QFII investment was initially limited to rights and interests-oriented investment, but the investment scope has widened recently. The number of securities brokers each QFII can appoint has increased from one to three. However, experts in international finance still comment on China’s capital market is opening slowly, given that QFII investment only accounts for 1.6% of the country’s stock market. China allows prestigious foreign companies and red chips (mainland China’s companies incorporated internationally and listed on the Stock Exchange) to issue their stocks in China. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is in the process of launching an international board reserved for foreign companies to make China’s capital market more competitive. Although the Chinese government has promised a speedy launch several times in the past, the establishment of the international board has been

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delayed for legislative, accounting and supervisory reasons. With Financial cooperation respect to the bond market, the between Korea and China interbank bond market accounts for is expanding. In the future, the two countries will 97% of the Chinese bond market, expand cooperation in and the stock exchanges for only 3%. various other fields. It is urgent to make the distribution market more active. China’s investment in totaled KRW 4.6 trillion at the end of October 2012, accounting for 1% of total foreign investment in South Korea. China’s investment in South Korea is relatively small compared to its trade volume with South Korea. Meanwhile, China’s holdings of South Korean bonds amounted to KRW 10.9 trillion at the end of October 2012 (12% of total investment), with the help of intergovernmental cooperation. As an example of such cooperation, South Korea, China and Japan agreed to boost cross-border investment in government bonds in May 2012. Only three years after entering South Korea’s bond market, China has become the third largest holder of South Korean bonds.

○● Accelerated currency finance cooperation In recognition of the urgent need for international cooperation in the handling of sudden capital inflows and outflows in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis, Asian countries announced the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) at the second ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers Meeting, held in Chiang Mai in May 2012. The initiative aims to aid member countries in need of emergency liquidity support. The CMI has expanded to the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM), a multilateral currency swap contract, which took effect in 2010, in order for member countries to improve risk response. CMIM is meaningful in that it is the first regional scheme for financial cooperation in East Asia. However, some disadvantages of CMIM

83 Winter 2012�POSRI Chindia Quarterly Korea’s currency swap agreement

Purpose Country Scope Remarks

Won-yuan KRW 64 trillion The value doubled in Oct. China (RMB 360 billion) 2011 General use Won-yen The value adjusted in Oct. Japan USD 3 billion 12012 Korea’s contribution Multilateral ASEAN+3 Dollar-local currency (USD 19.2 bil. 16% of the (CMIM) countries USD 19.2 billion CMI crisis total 120 bil.)

Dollar-Won/yen Bilateral Japan - USD 10 billion

Note: Based on data available at the end of Nov. 2012 Source: Bank of Korea

have been pointed out: it provides insufficient liquidity support and its funding is linked to IMF support. CMIM has improved its role as a financial safety net in the region by increasing the IMF de-link portion and introducing a crisis prevention facility. Korea and China have recognized the need for precautionary responses to the negative spillover effect, which refers to the impact of financial instability in one country easily spilling over to another, due to increasingly close economic relations. In October 2011, the BOK and PBOC doubled the value of their currency swap agreement from KRW 32 trillion to KRW 64 trillion (RMB 360 billion). And in December 2012, the two central banks introduced a currency swap scheme that allows Korean and Chinese companies to settle trade payments in each other’s currency. As mentioned earlier, in March 2012, the BOK received a QFII license to invest as much as USD 300 million in China’s stock market, an investment ceiling of RMB 20 billion in the interbank bond market.

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○● Trade settlement in local currency Korea and China should reduce their heavy dependence on the dollar by expanding trade settlement in their own currencies. As part of its efforts to internationalize the yuan, China is in the process of expanding cross-border trade settlement in the yuan. In reality, however, trade settlement in the yuan and won is limited by the partial internationalization of both currencies, unlike the currencies of other advanced countries. Currently, Korea’s trade settlement in the won accounts for 3-4% for imports and 2% for exports. Trade settlement in the local currency should be expanded simultaneously with the opening of the capital market and currency internationalization. China is increasingly opening its financial market. In 2011, China formally allowed the use of the yuan to settle Chinese outbound direct investment (ODI) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in China. South Korea should strengthen its financial cooperation with China, as their real economies are growing more and more intertwined.

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