The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Monday that Korea would discuss with three other economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to allow cross-border marketing and sales of funds.
Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok will meet his counterparts from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to discuss the adoption of the so-called fund passport system in the four countries.
They plan to ink a non-binding agreement during the APEC meeting of financial leaders on Sept.19-20 in Indonesia.
The system would allow their asset managers to market and sell their fund products to other respective customers by only gaining approval from their financial regulators at home.
They would not need to adjust their products and seek additional regulatory approval to market their funds in those four markets after the four APEC economies draw up standard guidelines, measures and regulations for the cross-border fund passport system.
The four economies aim to come up with the measures by the end of next year, the Finance Ministry noted.
Korea is seeking to invite countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia to join the Asia Pacific fund passport system in the near future as the country’s asset management companies seek to expand in those regions.
Australia first proposed the idea of adopting this system to 13 other APEC members, including Japan, Vietnam and the U.S., in September 2010.
Interested economies, including Korea, have held eight rounds of talks over the matter since then, with the four economies reaching a tentative agreement to adopt the system.
The Finance Ministry said that the adoption would be a win-win for both consumers and asset managers. Consumers will be given more options and choices over a variety of investment products, while the system will further help globalize domestic asset managers.
The four countries will launch a test-pilot of the system in 2015 after drawing up their measures and guidelines, the ministry said.
By Park Hyong-ki (
hkp@heraldcorp.com)
