No minutes kept of Blue House meeting on “Samsung-Hynix leverage”; Kim Jae-seop calls it a “closed-door meeting”

[Financial News] No minutes were prepared for a Jan. 13 roundtable at the presidential office, where the introduction of single-stock leveraged ETFs (exchange-traded funds) tied to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix was reportedly discussed, after the meeting was held behind closed doors. The opposition has criticized the decision-making process related to the ETFs as opaque, calling it a “closed-door meeting.”
On the 7th, documents obtained by People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jae-seop, a member of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, from the Presidential Secretariat showed that no minutes had been prepared for the presidential office’s closed-door roundtable on Jan. 13.
The Presidential Secretariat told Kim that “the Jan. 13 roundtable was held behind closed doors to hear a range of views from industry and people in the field on the domestic capital market in an open atmosphere,” and said it was difficult to disclose who attended. It also responded in writing that “as this was a closed-door roundtable, no minutes were prepared, making it difficult to submit related materials.”
The party that proposed single-stock leveraged ETFs has yet to be identified. No such proposal appeared in the Capital Market Research Institute’s presentation materials or in materials submitted by the Korea Exchange and the Korea Securities Depository, and participating executives also said they had not made the proposal. The advance opinion letters from five private financial firms that attended the meeting at the Blue House’s request were also found to contain no call for the ETFs’ introduction.
Even so, after the roundtable, financial authorities moved to revise the rules to allow single-stock leveraged ETFs. Following amendments to the Enforcement Decree and product reviews, single-stock leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix were launched.
The opposition has strongly criticized the fact that the policy-making process has not been made public, even though the introduction of single-stock leveraged ETFs has caused numerous individual investors to suffer losses. For this year’s parliamentary audit, it also nominated former policy chief Kim Yong-beom and others as witnesses or reference witnesses, but they were not selected.
Kim Jae-seop said, “Individual investors have suffered losses amounting to trillions of won from single-stock leveraged products, yet not a single page of minutes remains from the meeting chaired by the Blue House, and the participating institutions say they did not recommend introducing them.” He added, “The Lee Jae-myung administration must stop passing the buck and clearly tell the public who first proposed the measure, how it was discussed at the Blue House, what risks were reviewed, and how the final decision was made.”
[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter