[단독] To sell pension funds every day… The Financial Supervisory Service “deliver trading data” unusual request

It has been confirmed that the financial supervisory authority has started to understand the current status of the net selling of national pension funds, such as the National Pension Plan, which has been running for more than a month (36 trading days). The Financial Supervisory Service requested the latest data from asset managers that receive and manage pension funds.

Asset managers are expressing embarrassment, saying, “It is hard to find a precedent to submit the details of the management of customer funds that should be kept confidential.”

According to several financial investment industry officials on the 18th, the Financial Supervisory Service recently requested that major asset management companies that receive pension funds and invest in domestic stocks, “submit data on net purchases and net sales of pension funds from November last year to the latest.”

An official in the asset management industry said, “Recently, the Financial Supervisory Service received a request from the Financial Supervisory Service for the current status of net purchases and net sales of the four major pension funds, including national pension, public servants’ pension, post office insurance, and private school annuities, and submitted it,” he said. It was very unusual to ask for data on the net purchase and net sales of the pension fund’s discretionary account.”

Other officials in the industry also confirmed the request for data from the FSS, and said, “In case of a discretionary account, the data can be provided only with the consent of the pension fund in which the money was entrusted,” and “Some pension funds did not submit because they did not agree to provide the data.”

Regarding this, a senior official at the Financial Supervisory Service said, “We requested data for the purpose of monitoring and supervising market trends,” while talking with Maeil Economic Daily. The official said, “The financial authorities have no authority to buy and sell stocks in pension funds, and have never thought about that,” he added. “In the case of the national pension, fund management is a matter to be decided by the Fund Management Committee.”

However, the asset managers who received the request for data even responded that it was absurd, saying it was unusual. In particular, it is reported that voices of dissatisfaction have erupted among pension funds, which are customers of management companies. Some managers have disagreeed with the provision of data, and some managers question whether the numbers received from the FSS are representative.

In the case of the National Pension Plan, the amount of domestic stock investment as of November last year was 144 trillion won, and 47%, or 67 trillion won, was selected and managed by an external manager. It seems that the FSS’s unusual attempt to understand the pension fund trading trend is due to the sale of domestic stocks of pension funds that have continued for more than a month. It is interpreted that it would have been necessary to identify specific numbers by pension fund and manager.

According to the Korea Exchange, pension funds continue to sell net in the securities market for 36 trading days from December 24 to February 18 last year. During this period, net sales exceeded 12 trillion won.

Individual investors who are called’Donghak ants’ are dissatisfied with the sale of pension funds. However, experts in the capital market are responding that there is nothing unusual about’weight control’. Even between individuals and experts, considerable differences in perception can be found. In particular, individual investors responded with regret, saying that the National Pension, which has the largest operating scale, continues to sell domestic stocks with money paid by the people. The National Pension Plan’s target for the share of domestic stock investment at the end of this year is 16.8%, but this ratio soared to 19.6% in November last year due to a rise in stock prices.

Apart from the social debate over the sale of pension funds, managers who received data requests were said to be in trouble. This is because the FSS did not ask for detailed trading details, but requested the number of net purchases and net sales by week, but without consent to the pension fund, the request cannot be satisfied.

Some people in the industry have also commented, “Isn’t it illegal to ask for the trading trend of pension funds, a large customer of management companies?” Regarding this, the Financial Supervisory Service said, “It was not required to submit the data in bulk,” and said, “It was only allowed to submit data when the management company received prior consent from the pension fund.”

A high-ranking FSS official said, “If there is a specific issue (continuous net selling of pension funds) in the market trend, shouldn’t we analyze how the sale is going on?” said, “The supervisory authority cannot (buy and sell stocks in pension funds). I’m not interested,” he said.

[문지웅 기자 / 문가영 기자]
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