February, 08 , 2010

Korea’s financial industry must expand aggressively to compete on the global stage, while the accountability of top executives at financial firms needs to be enhanced.A joint study released yesterday by three think tanks - the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF), the Korea Capital Market Institute (KCMI) and the Korea Insurance Research Institute (KIRI) - said Korea’s banking and brokerage industry should follow these steps to globalize.The study was commissioned by the Financial Services Commission and was conducted over a seven-month period with the help of some 30 researchers.

The study found that although Korea is the world’s 15th-largest economy, its financial industry is still relatively underdeveloped. Only 10 Korean financial companies were included in the world’s top 1,000 banks - much lower than the U.S. (159) and Japan (97). The report said that the Korean financial industry needs to employ a strategy that focuses on turning the country into a financial hub by attracting overseas investments as well as aggressively advancing in the global market.

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