maandag 4 september 2006

De twee gezichten van de financiele hub

De Koreaanse overheid wil een hub voor Noord-Oost Azie worden op het gebied van finance, logistiek en R&D. Dit resulteert in dure campagnes en gelikte promotiefilms, maar de praktijk is vaak anders.

Een abstract uit Arirang News van 21 augustus:

Gov't Pushing 'Hub of Asia' Campaign via Measures

The government is on a campaign to turn the country into the financial hub of Northeast Asia. Now, Seoul has passed a number of measures geared to make things easier for foreign companies. The latest is a state office providing assistance to foreign financial firms.
Despite Korea's standing as Asia's third-largest economy, foreign companies have often put the country on the backburner due largely to language and cultural barriers in the market. To change that, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched a government agency whose main job is to offer assistance to foreign financial firms.

De praktijk leert echter dat de FSS uitermate kritisch is op procedures bij buitenlandse banken, verzekeraars en asset management firma's, zo blijkt ook uit het volgende bericht dat een aantal dagen later (28 augustus) in de Korea Times verscheen (hele artikel):

Occidental Life Suspended for 6 Months

Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance's Seoul office has received a six-month ban on doing business here and been fined 5 million won, after it was found to have illegally sold insurance contracts, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said yesterday. The office has no license to sell contracts and is supposed to engage purely in market research.
(...)
The FSS said it would increase monitoring on the ten foreign insurers operating local offices to ensure they do not engage in illegal activities.
Established in 1906, the U.S. insurer has $29.7 billion in total assets, and $2.1 billion equity capital. It was merged with AEGON in 1999, the fifth biggest insurance group in the global market.

Een aantal FSS ambtenaren heeft duidelijk die memo over de financial hub niet gekregen.

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