[Person人] Son Byung-du, KRX Chairman, "A Market Advocate Equipped with Crisis Response Capability"

Son Byung-du, the new Chairman of Korea Exchange (KRX)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Jeong-su] "To foster future growth engines through the capital market, we will prioritize supporting corporate innovation challenges and supplying economic growth drivers."

This was the inaugural statement of Sohn Byung-doo, the new chairman of the Korea Exchange (KRX). He assumed the chairmanship amid the difficult environment caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), tasked with revitalizing the capital market and restoring market trust damaged by incidents such as the Lime scandal.

Widely recognized as an international finance expert well-versed in the global macroeconomic situation and praised for his excellent crisis response capabilities as a member of the COVID-19 task force, Sohn also concurrently served as the Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission and Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, deepening his understanding of key capital market issues and raising market expectations.

◆Highly Rated Crisis Response Capability= As Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission this year, Chairman Sohn demonstrated outstanding crisis response skills by presiding over weekly Financial Risk Response Team meetings. These meetings are regular public-private joint sessions that review domestic and international financial market trends and risk factors to discuss countermeasures and formulate policies.

Through these meetings, he focused on preparing financial authority-level measures to defend against risks such as corporate earnings downturns and deterioration of financial sector asset soundness. Specifically, he promoted policies including strengthening financial support for small business owners and companies, stabilizing the stock market, and establishing foreign exchange risk response strategies. His efforts to enhance financial support through the Financial Risk Response Team meetings are credited with helping to prevent deterioration of the real economy.

He is also credited with promoting market-friendly measures to revitalize the financial market in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, such as discussing ways to activate digital finance, launch new fintech services, and expand funding supply in the Korean New Deal sectors.

During his tenure as Secretary-General of the Financial Services Commission, he also led practical work on various financial policies, including restructuring Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hanjin Shipping, credit card fee measures, and housing market stabilization plans.

◆Challenges of Market and Stock Market Revitalization and Trust Recovery Amid COVID-19= Chairman Sohn faces the task of managing stock market risks and revitalizing the capital market to maintain a positive atmosphere in the domestic stock market. For the time being, concerns about economic downturns caused by COVID-19 inevitably act as decisive variables for the global economy, including Korea, and the stock market.

The KOSPI, the representative index of the domestic stock market, showed a sluggish trend earlier this year, falling to the 1400 level due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, with liquidity expansion and other factors, it surpassed 2800 in December, continuously setting new all-time highs. Given the changing macroeconomic situation due to COVID-19, the stock market could plunge again at any time.

With COVID-19 vaccine-related stocks and political theme stocks surging, stock market volatility has increased, causing many small shareholders who have massively entered the market to suffer significant losses. Market trust has also been damaged due to the Lime and Optimus scandals involving no-capital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) groups.

Accordingly, it is necessary to diligently oversee and respond to stock market misconduct and systematically manage risks to maintain stock market order, including thorough supervision of listed companies.

Chairman Sohn expressed his commitment to creating a fair capital market trusted by investors by protecting investors and fostering a sound market. He ordered the establishment of a market surveillance system to efficiently block unfair trading, including no-capital M&A and new theme stock monitoring activities.

He urged active efforts to improve market systems and practices by listening more closely to investors' voices, including rationalizing delisting decisions and exit procedures considering corporate special circumstances, and improving short selling and market maker systems.

◆Supporting Innovation Funds through KOSDAQ and KONEX Revitalization= Revitalizing the KOSDAQ market, a task emphasized by former KRX Chairman Jung Ji-won but without clear achievements, is also a challenge Chairman Sohn must address.

In his inaugural speech, he stated that to foster future growth engines through the capital market, supporting corporate innovation and challenges and supplying economic growth drivers would be top priorities. To this end, he set and plans to promote key tasks such as strengthening tailored support systems according to corporate growth stages, establishing a securities analysis center for small and medium innovative companies, and building non-face-to-face communication channels in preparation for the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

He mentioned improving stock market entry requirements focusing on market evaluation and growth potential and reviewing reform plans for the KOSDAQ market system. To establish a successful foundation for the K-New Deal, he emphasized actively promoting the expansion of related exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and derivatives, as well as revitalizing social responsibility investment (SRI) bonds and the emissions trading market.

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