Lee Bok-hyun: "The Abolition of Financial Investment Income Tax Will Be Smoothly Handled"

Lee Bok-hyun, the Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, held a meeting with global investment bank (IB) analysts. It appears to be an attempt to alleviate the concerns of foreign investors regarding the recent trends in the domestic stock market.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 10th, the FSS held a meeting with global IB analysts presided over by the Governor. Analysts from global IBs such as Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citi, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan, and HSBC attended the meeting. From the FSS, key executives including Hwang Seon-oh, Deputy Governor for Planning and Strategy, and Seo Jae-wan, Deputy Governor for Financial Investment, as well as heads of major departments related to banking, capital markets, and insurance were present.

According to the FSS, in this meeting, global IB analysts expressed concerns that if the current domestic political uncertainty prolongs, the economic downside risk could increase. Amid expectations that Korea's economic growth rate will slow next year due to sluggish semiconductor industry and changes in U.S. tariff policies, there is talk that political uncertainty could lengthen due to the 'martial law situation' causing political turmoil.

Foreign investors also asked whether the abolition of the Financial Investment Income Tax, legal amendments to strengthen shareholder protection, corporate value enhancement programs, and the resumption of short selling, as well as market stabilization measures, could be continuously pursued.

According to the FSS, Governor Lee responded to these analysts' questions by stating, "Solving economic issues is separate from political issues." He added, "The government has been operating an economic and financial situation monitoring task force (TF) since the 5th and will actively respond to downside risks." He continued, "Please proceed with the investments that global IBs originally planned."

Regarding the abolition of the Financial Investment Income Tax, Governor Lee said, "There is no disagreement between the ruling and opposition parties, and it is a crucial bill for stabilizing investment sentiment, so it is expected to be handled smoothly and in a timely manner."

He stated, "Since there is a social consensus on capital market advancement measures such as shareholder-friendly policies, they will be consistently pursued," and added, "As the opposition party also has a strong will to promote them, we will push for results in the near future."

Reporter Han Gyeol Sun always@hankyung.com