Korea

삼성증권은 이달 들어 새롭게 선보인 ‘슈퍼스텝다운형 ELS’에 400억이 넘는 자금이 몰리는 등 큰 인기를 얻고 있다고 25일 밝혔다.

‘슈퍼스텝다운형 ELS’는 투자 기간 중 원금손실 조건이 발생되는 주가 수준인 ‘하락배리어’를 없애고, 최종 만기 시 수익 지급 기준을 대폭 완화한 새로운 ELS유형으로 삼성증권이 지난 2월 9일 업계 처음으로 선보였다.

Published: October 6 2008 09:39 | Last updated: October 6 2008 12:07

S. Korean banks struggle to raise dollars

On the basis that public funds seem to be going into banking systems in broadly alphabetical order – starting with America, Belgium, Germany and last week moving to Iceland and Ireland – it looks like time up for Korea. And right on cue, Asia’s fourth biggest economy is exhibiting signs of panic. On Monday, Korea’s finance minister urged banks to sell overseas assets to raise foreign funds and promised them access to the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Short term funding rates jumped to a seven and a half year high, while the won, one of the world’s worst performing currencies, fell a further 5 per cent against the dollar.

By Song Jung-a in Seoul

Published: October 6 2008 07:15 | Last updated: October 6 2008 09:28

South Korea’s finance minister on Monday said that local banks were having difficulties securing foreign currency liquidity due to the global credit crunch.

Kang Man-soo, the finance minister, urged local banks to sell overseas assets to raise foreign currency funds and to boost lending to small and mid-sized enterprises struggling with rising borrowing costs.

In March 2007, the spread between the interest rate component on a dollar/Korean won cross-currency swap (CCS) and a vanilla domestic interest rate swap (IRS) was just 20-40 basis points. In mid-April 2008, after widening to as much as 500bp in November, the spread remains huge, at around 400bp. Experts say the development is indicative of a liquidity crisis in the South Korean market. At the same time, it presents an arbitrage opportunity for investors.