‘Sales Expert, Strategist, Specialist’ Three Candidates Declare for Financial Investment Association President

Chairman Selected by Vote of 385 Member Companies in Securities and Asset Management Today
Commitments Include Pension Investment Activation, Capital Market Regulation Improvement, and Taxation Issue Resolution

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] ‘20 years of sales experience (Kim Hae-jun), strategic analyst (Seo Myung-seok), former industry expert (Seo Yoo-seok).’ Former Kyobo Securities CEO Kim Hae-jun, former Yuanta Securities CEO Seo Myung-seok, and former Mirae Asset Global Investments CEO Seo Yoo-seok (names in alphabetical order) will compete for the 6th Financial Investment Association chairman position on the 23rd. In interviews with Asia Economy on the 22nd, the three candidates actively expressed their strategies for the development of the financial investment industry and their unique competitive advantages.

Candidate Kim Hae-jun said, "I have worked in investment banking (IB) sales for 20 years," adding, "I want to now use the 20 years of communication know-how I acquired by visiting three clients a day for the industry’s benefit." Kim emphasized, "The top priority I want to promise is the taxation issue on fund distribution (profits). If this is not adjusted to separate taxation, the private asset management industry will wither. It is a matter of survival."

Recently, private specialized asset management firms have raised concerns about the change in the nature of fund distributions from ‘financial investment income’ to ‘dividend income’ in the tax law amendment. This includes applying dividend income tax instead of capital gains tax (22%) on private fund investment profits, resulting in a 49.5% ‘financial investment tax bomb.’

Candidate Seo Myung-seok also stated, "Regarding the conflict between private asset managers and the Financial Investment Association over the financial investment tax issue, I will actively communicate with regulatory authorities to lead negotiations and adopt a more humble stance toward member companies."

Seo said, "Having worked in research for over 20 years, I have forecasted and created strategies based on analysis results. My principle in negotiation is to first propose solutions that the other party wants, and I will use this approach to successfully lead conclusions beneficial to the industry when communicating with authorities."

He added, "Especially for small and medium-sized securities firms, they are going through very difficult times due to funding shortages related to asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) started from real estate project financing (PF). The problem expanded with the Legoland incident amid the sudden cooling of the real estate market, but the authorities tend to retrospectively perceive that securities firms caused the problem by excessively engaging in real estate PF, which is regrettable."

Furthermore, he emphasized, "If there is a systemic problem, it is appropriate to hold securities firms accountable, but issues caused by temporary or frictional factors should rather be resolved by the government and authorities. In a capitalist society, it is not always the answer to punish companies unconditionally for problems arising from their efforts to earn money."

Candidate Seo Yoo-seok stated, "I want to significantly grow the individual pension and retirement pension markets in line with the government’s public pension reform." Seo said, "The public’s retirement is important, but since public pensions cannot cover everything, we need to persuade authorities to create plans that provide many incentives for private pensions."

He advised, "To supplement the income replacement rate of public pensions, we can consider doubling the contribution limits for private pensions, reducing housing size and allowing the remaining gains to be put into private pensions, and adjusting so that receiving private pensions as annuities rather than lump sums is more advantageous." Seo emphasized, "Based on my experience covering securities and asset management industries, I will carefully consider the diverse interests of member companies."

Meanwhile, the Financial Investment Association chairman will be elected on the 23rd through electronic voting by member companies. Currently, there are 385 regular members of the Financial Investment Association, including securities firms, asset management companies, trust companies, and futures firms.

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