Lee, Seung-Myung

Abstract
The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) is not likely to have quite the far-reaching impact on the Korean financial market as it is expected to on the trade of goods and services, bearing in mind that a large part of the financial market, especially the capital market, has already been widely open for the past few years. Nevertheless, it is a great opportunity to make the Korean financial institutions and the financial industry more competitive and further developed. It is also expected that the KORUS FTA will provide the momentum for the currently anemic financial hub initiative, namely making Korea a financial hub in North-east Asia, to rapidly become a reality. Regarding the effects of the KORUS FTA on the financial market in Korea, the positive effects will definitely outweigh the negative ones. The domestic financial industry will inevitably be exposed to a greater degree of foreign competition due to the KORUS FTA. The Korean government should create a more business-friendly environment for global financial firms to compete in and make the regulatory framework more transparent and principle-based, away from the current rule-based in order to meet global standards.
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