Korea’s financial regulators will sign a memorandum of understanding with its counterpart in Australia, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, to collaborate in inspecting illegal financial activities, a senior financial official in Seoul said on Thursday.

Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kwon Hyouk-se is scheduled to leave for Sydney to sign the bilateral agreement on Friday, under which the two authorities will be able to mobilize resources together to prevent stock manipulation activities such as the Deutsche Bank back in November.

“As local authorities can’t summon traders overseas, there are limits to inspect and punish illicit activities by those who trades at multiple market places across borders,” the official said.

APRA regulates banks, credit unions, insurers and building societies in Australia. FSS and the Financial Services Commission have signed over 23 such MOUs with at least 15 different nations.

Hong Kong-based traders at Deutsche Bank in November were found to have reaped 44.8 billion won profit from a net sale of 1.6 trillion won on KOSPI but couldn’t be summoned for investigation by Seoul authorities. The FSC and prosecutors later froze 45 billion won of its assets after Hong Kong authorities helped the investigation.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)