February, 04 , 2010

A conference on the global financial crisis revealed Wednesday that a power game between government agencies may be leaving firms uncertain about regulatory policies.Top officials from the presidential office, finance ministry and financial regulatory authorities disagreed on how much freedom bankers should enjoy, while bankers themselves were more concerned about whom they should trust.Kwak Seung-jun, a top lieutenant of President Lee Myung-bak, was the first to insist that South Korea should defy the global trend of tighter regulations by giving more autonomy to Korean bankers and expanding the market.

But his laissez-faire view was instantly rejected by Minister of Finance Yoon Jeung-hyun and several officials from the financial authorities who favor closer monitoring and controlled growth.Kwak said that the financial industry in South Korea is growing up from the level of "elementary school to middle school," so it was wrong to assume that it was at the same level as in Anglo-Saxon countries which are like "college students" and have had much more liberty than their Korean counterparts.

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