Hana Bank Decides to Prepay 50% of Principal for UK Fund with Redemption Suspension

Final Decision Made at the Board Meeting on the 13th

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hana Bank announced on the 17th that it has decided to implement an investor protection plan that prioritizes the payment of provisional payments amounting to 50% of the principal investment for UK funds.

At the board meeting on the 13th, the funds for which provisional payments were decided are ▲UK Rooftop Fund (sales amount 25.8 billion KRW) ▲UK Renewable Energy Fund (sales amount 53.5 billion KRW) ▲UK Value-Added Tax Fund (sales amount 57 billion KRW). This measure was prepared to provide liquidity support to investors who could not recover their investments at maturity due to the suspension of redemptions of these funds.

Investors who receive provisional payments will settle accounts with the sales company upon fund recovery, and the compensation standards will follow the decisions of the Financial Supervisory Service’s Dispute Mediation Committee. Hana Bank plans to make every effort to improve relationships and restore trust with investors through the implementation of this investor protection plan.

This investor protection plan was decided based on the results of a direct asset audit conducted by an accounting firm under the supervision of Hana Bank, the sales company, after verification of facts through the local asset manager and delays in legal recovery procedures. It is an unprecedented case for the sales company to conduct an audit of investment assets under its supervision, but it was carried out decisively as it was judged that no further delay could be tolerated to ensure prompt recovery of investment funds and investor protection.

The asset audit revealed circumstances where, unlike the initial investment proposal provided by the asset manager, contingent senior claims had arisen, changing the priority ranking of the fund investments. Accordingly, Hana Bank judged that there is a high possibility of principal loss upon future recovery of investment funds, and based on this, decided at the board meeting to make provisional payments in advance.

A representative from Hana Bank’s IPS section stated, “At this stage of implementing the investor protection plan, we will devote ourselves to recovering fund investments through cooperation with domestic stakeholders.”

Regarding this UK fund investor protection plan, Hana Bank will hold a PB meeting to explain the situation to the PBs who sold the products and will soon provide individual guidance to investors through each branch regarding detailed schedules and procedures.

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