December 22, 2008

Editor¡¯s note: The ruling Grand National Party says it is going to pass controversial legislation on its own, with the backing of President Lee Myung-bak, and the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, says it will boycott the extraordinary National Assembly session. On the occasion of a Cold War shaping up among legislators, The Hankyoreh decided to take a close look at the bills up for consideration.

The Lee Myung-bak administration and the ruling Grand National Party are pushing two pieces of legislation, the Financial Holding Company Act and a revision to the law on banking, despite resistance from the opposition parties. But it was confirmed Sunday that the key parts to these legislative proposals are carbon copies of a secret Samsung Group document from May 2005 titled ¡°Road Map for Samsung Financial Subsidiaries Becoming Financial Holding Companies.¡± This ¡°Samsung road map¡± created a storm in October 2007 when former Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Shim Sang-jeong exposed it during the 2007 annual National Assembly audit of executive branch affairs.

The Financial Holding Company Act, as proposed by the GNP, is exactly the same as Samsung¡¯s road map for itself in that seeks to permit financial subsidiaries that are not commercial banks, such as insurance and securities companies, to own non-financial subsidiaries. On page 21, the Samsung road map says that it ¡°would be possible to maintain control and transform subsidiaries into holding companies if the subsidiaries of financial holding companies are permitted to own stakes in non-financial affiliates.