The Korean government has expressed its intent to make Seoul a financial services hub for Northeast Asia, and in recent years financial services companies have made some of the largest investments in Korea's market.

The U.S.-Korea Business Council supports Korea's aspirations and encourages Korea to continue moving forward with reforms and liberalization efforts in this sector that will attract further investment and enhance Korea's global competitiveness. In particular, the Council applauds recent efforts by the Korean government to consolidate overlapping laws and regulations and supports additional measures to remove remaining barriers between banking, securities, and insurance.

Council priorities include:

• Full implementation by the Korean government of the KORUS FTA provisions on financial services and transparency, and of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (FISCMA).
• Increased transparency in Korea's regulatory and rulemaking process and equal access to regulatory information.
• Efforts that more closely align Korea's financial service sector regulations with global best practices.
• Establishment of a level playing field for all entities in the Korean financial services sector.
• Streamlining the approval process of new financial services products in the Korean market.