[서울신문] Both stocks and bitcoins go abroad… Banks”suspicious remittance’ emergency

Seohak ant 1st quarter stock settlement up to KRW 144 trillion
Overseas remittance of’Kimchi Premium’ bitcoin surges
‘Illegal warfare’ is also rampant in realizing profits in Korea
“I have to send it in small pieces and check it one by one”

It was found that the amount of payment of overseas stocks in the first quarter of this year was about 144 trillion won, the highest ever. Bitcoin with’Kimchi Premium’ is also attracting attention as overseas remittances have soared.

According to the Korea Securities Depository on the 14th, the amount of overseas stock payments (buying and selling) through the KSD in the first quarter was 128.5 billion dollars (about 14.4 trillion KRW), which was twice as much as the previous quarter (65.4 billion dollars). This is the largest quarterly since 2011 when statistics were collected.

By market, US stock payments amounted to $119.89 billion (about 134 trillion won), an increase of 98.7% from the previous quarter. This is a scale that accounts for 93.3% of the total overseas stock settlement. By stock, Tesla ($1.87 billion), GameStop ($5.2 billion), Apple ($3.86 billion), SPAC company Churchill Capital ($2.57 billion), big data analytics company Palantier Technologies U.S. stocks, including ($2.18 billion), dominated the top spot.

Bitcoin overseas remittances through commercial banks also surged. It is analyzed that the bitcoin price is the purpose of arbitrage trading using the so-called’kimchi premium’, which is traded at a higher price on the domestic cryptocurrency exchange. Instead of the expensive domestic bitcoin, the cryptocurrency exchange (illegal foreign exchange transaction), which buys cheap bitcoin overseas, sells it in Korea, realizes a profit, and remits it overseas, is being done through commercial banks. However, it is difficult to confirm the exact purpose as most are split into small remittances that do not require submission of supporting documents.

According to the financial sector that day, about $136.18 million was remitted overseas from Bank A in nine business days until the 13th of this month. An official from a commercial bank said, “The amount of money remittances ($5,000 per case) can be remitted without supporting documents according to the current regulations, so we have no choice but to check each and every case of remittance suspected of being illegal in the future.” Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and Nonghyup banks sent an official letter of’Notes on Overseas Remittances Related to Cryptocurrency’ to their branch offices last week, instructing them to reject the suspicious remittance request.

Reporter Yoon Yeon-jung [email protected]