Financial Supervisory Service, Optimus 3rd Disciplinary Hearing... Will the Final Decision Be Made?

Third Sanctions Review Today, Conclusion Possible
Optimus Fund Dispute Mediation on 5th Next Month... Likely to Recommend 'Full Principal Refund'

Optimus victims are holding a picket protest in front of the Financial Supervisory Service. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] On the 24th, the financial authorities will resume the 3rd disciplinary committee meeting targeting NH Investment & Securities, the largest distributor, and Hana Bank, the custodian, in relation to the Optimus Fund incident.

Since the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced its plan to complete the Optimus disciplinary review by the end of this month, a final conclusion is expected on this day. Previously, the FSS held the 1st meeting on the 19th of last month and the 2nd meeting on the 4th of this month to discuss the level of sanctions but judged that additional deliberation was necessary.

NH Investment & Securities, as the largest distributor of the Optimus Fund, is under scrutiny for whether it failed to properly filter out the defective fund due to inadequate internal controls. NH Investment & Securities’ sales amount of the Optimus Fund is 432.7 billion KRW, accounting for 84% of the total suspended redemption amount.

The FSS has pre-notified CEO Young-chae Jung of NH Investment & Securities of a three-month suspension from duty, and has also notified NH Investment & Securities of a heavy institutional sanction. Hana Bank, which was the custodian of the Optimus Fund, is also reported to have received a pre-notification of a heavy disciplinary sanction.

Meanwhile, the FSS has scheduled the Optimus Fund dispute mediation committee to be held on the 5th of next month. It is anticipated that the Optimus dispute mediation committee will apply 'contract cancellation due to mistake,' resulting in the second '100% principal refund' recommendation decision following Lime Asset Management’s Pluto TF-1 (Trade Finance Fund).

Contract cancellation due to mistake is a clause that allows the contract to be canceled if important matters that would have prevented the contract from being concluded in the first place were not properly disclosed. Since the contract itself is canceled, the distributor must return 100% of the principal to the investors.

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