'Rhyme Bad Bank' Majority Shareholders Likely to Be Shinhan Bank and Geumtu

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Lime Asset Management’s establishment of a bad bank to recover investment funds from poorly managed funds is set to have Shinhan Bank and Shinhan Financial Investment as joint largest shareholders. Until now, Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Financial Investment, and Woori Bank have been engaged in a tug-of-war to avoid becoming the largest shareholder of the bad bank.

According to financial circles on the 27th, it was reported that in the final negotiations for the launch of the Lime bad bank held the previous day, it was practically concluded that Shinhan Bank and Shinhan Financial Investment would take on the role of major shareholders. All decisions are expected to be finalized within this week or by early next week at the latest.

Major distributors of Lime’s poorly managed funds have repeatedly discussed whether Woori Bank or Shinhan Bank and Shinhan Financial Investment should be the largest shareholder. By individual financial company sales, Woori Bank’s sales amount to 357.7 billion KRW, the largest, but by financial group, Shinhan Financial Group leads with 601.7 billion KRW (Shinhan Bank 276.9 billion KRW, Shinhan Financial Investment 324.8 billion KRW). In particular, they have passed the role of largest shareholder to each other due to concerns over the negative image associated with being the largest shareholder of the bad bank. However, it is reported that Shinhan, which has the highest sales volume in both banking and securities, has ultimately agreed to take the lead.

However, some in the financial sector raise controversy over whether it is appropriate not to assign the largest shareholder role of the bad bank to an individual financial company but to have it effectively assumed at the financial group level.

Most of the approximately 20 major distributors of Lime’s funds will participate in the bad bank. The plan is to focus on recovering investment funds from Lime’s poorly managed funds. The entire portfolio to be transferred includes Lime’s trade finance fund (Pluto TF-1), Thetis No. 2, Pluto FI D-1, Credit Insurance (CI) No. 1, and sub-funds, totaling 1.6679 trillion KRW.

Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Service is expected to begin inspections, joint on-site investigations, and disciplinary procedures related to Lime funds as early as next month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.