KSDA Reelects
Chairman

Chairman Hwang to prepare for financial market changes under new integrated capital market law

Chairman Hwang Kun-ho of the Korea Securities Dealers Association has been reelected to serve another term by the representatives of member firms in a meeting on Feb. 8, the association said recently.
The candidate recommendation committee recommended three candidates, including Kim Byung-kyun, an advisor to the Daihan Investment and Securities Co. and heads of the 33 association member firms elected the incumbent chairman Hwang to succeed himself as the 46th chairman of the KDSA.
At the meeting that got on the say in the afternoon, Hwang got 25 votes and the other two candidates got 4 votes each.
Hwang who hails from Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, is a graduate of Seoul National University and joined the Daewoo Securities in 1976. He was promoted to managing director after a stint as manager of the company's New York branch. He was promoted to vice president later.
Hwang became president of Meritz Securities before being named as chairman of the KDSA in 2004.
Following his reelection, he told the press that he will take his reelection as the mission given to him by the association to complete the capital market integration laws and the development of the domestic capital market. He will work for making securities firms bigger, professional, and specialized to strengthen their competitive edge through improved professionalism and services backed up by the association.
He claimed that banks, insurance and securities companies should develop together at the same time to push the development of the financial market in the country. "I believe the integrated capital market law in this regard will play a key role,"he stressed.
His new term of office expires in February, 2010, but he should leave the office at the end of next year when the integrated capital market law is ready for implementation. Under the new law, the securities association, the fund management association and other capital market related associations are required to be merged into a single association under a new chairman.
Hwang said he will focus on the current issues for now, not yet think about running for the chairman of a new association to be created. He will know whether he will run or not when the time comes, then, he said.
The Korea Securities Dealers Association said it will concentrate on information on bonds this year, including the real-time posting of transactions and public notices, management of market information and raising the convenience of business reports by member companies.
Chairman Hwang Kun-ho of the association said the association has launched a bond information center to provide bond market information in English from Jan. 5.
The center has been providing information pertinent to bond market including the issuance of bonds at the bond market, statistics on bond transactions, real-time transaction details, indicators for bond market, regulations on bond market, analyst reports and other domestic bond market related information to foreign bond investors.
The association hopes that the English bond information center will make it easier for foreign investors to obtain information on bond activities and deal in bonds so that domestic bond market will be revitalized and thus help the market's internationalization.
Hwang also remarked that the collection of receivables has gone well last year, bringing down the amount substantially from early in the year, contributing hugely to stable market conditions.
The securities community, in cooperation with the KSDA, raised the advance payment rate to 30 percent from 20 percent when buying stocks through dealers with 50 percent of them in cash.
According to the HSDA, the receivables reached about 3 trillion won in January and it was reduced to from 600 billion won to 800 billion won in June. In detail, KOSPI Index reached 1418.83 in average in December, last year, rising 2.8 percent from 1379.32 in average in January. But the amount of receivables in December averaged 892.6 billion won, up 62 percent from December in January, averaging 2.,347.3 billion won and down 43 percent from March( averaging 1,555.5 billion won).
The receivables of stock transaction payment also fell to 19.2 percent in December from 27.5 percent in January. nw

Chairman Hwang Kun-ho of the Korea Securities Dealers Association.