[단독] There was a reason for banks to sell’don’t ask’ private equity funds… Earn 340 billion won in commission

Input 2021.03.04 11:23

Hana Bank commissioned first in Optimus
Lime-related banks such as Woori and Shinhan also take tens of billions

From 2016 to the first half of last year, banks were found to have earned nearly 340 billion won in fees for selling private equity funds.

In October 2015, the Financial Services Commission (Government) lowered the minimum investment in private equity from 500 million won to 100 million won, but since 2016, after the deregulation, the amount of money earned by banks from selling private equity has increased by more than 10 billion won each year. In 2016, the sales commission income from private equity funds for banking sectors, which remained at around 50 billion won, exceeded 100 billion won in 2019, before the events of Optimus Fund and Lime Fund were revealed.

According to the Office of Congressman Chang-Hyun Yoon and the Financial Supervisory Service on the 4th, the commission received by 16 domestic banks (including national policy and foreigners) for selling private equity funds for four years and six months from 2016 to the first half of last year was estimated at 336.34 billion won. .

A private equity fund is a fund that can be joined only by putting a minimum investment amount of at least a certain amount. Lime Asset Management Fund and Optimus Asset Management Fund, which brought about 1.5 trillion won and 500 billion won of redemption, respectively, as well as German Heritage Fund, Discovery Fund, and Italian Healthcare Fund, are all private equity funds. The Financial Services Commission has lowered the minimum subscription amount for private equity funds to 100 million won, saying that regulations will be relaxed, and it has also left the sales activities of sales companies such as banks to voluntarily.

The commission for the sale of private equity funds for banking sectors increased from 53.4 billion won in 2016 to 76.3 billion won in 2017, an increase of 22.9 billion won (42.9%) over one year. In 2018, it was 9.48 billion won, an increase of 20120 million won (26.3%) from the previous year, and in 2019, it exceeded 100 billion won to 107.15 billion won (an increase of 10.67 billion won, 11.0%).

By bank, Hana Bank’s sales fee was 84.9 billion won, the highest among 16 banks. Hana Bank is the trustee bank of the Optimus Fund in question (financial management), and the Financial Supervisory Service disciplinary action on suspicion that it may have previously recognized the fact that Optimus management had invested in bad debts after deceiving investors as public institutional accounts receivables. Waiting for you.

Woori Bank also earned a sales commission of 66.9 billion won. Woori Bank sold a lime fund worth 357.7 billion won. The Financial Supervisory Service is undergoing disciplinary proceedings against Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, who was then the head of the bank. Following that, Shinhan Bank (54.3 billion won), NH Nonghyup Bank (53.8 billion won), and KB Kookmin Bank (387 billion won), in that order, had the highest sales commission income.

Some have pointed out that the cause of the private equity crisis is that banks have forced excessive sales to increase commission income while deregulating the minimum investment amount for private equity funds.

Nam-hee Cho, CEO of Financial Consumer Resources, analyzed, “The government reduced the minimum investment to 100 million won and relaxed regulations, and the Financial Supervisory Service did not supervise the sale of private equity funds, so banks were able to intensively sell private equity funds without burden.”

CEO Cho said, “Banks focus on selling private equity funds because private equity funds can receive higher fees due to their large subscription amount, and they usually have shorter maturities than public offering funds with maturity of more than one year, so they can receive fees several times a year. I did it,” he explained.

“The private equity funds have higher sales fees than public offerings, and the government has lowered the minimum investment to ease regulations, so banks have started to sell far more than public offerings, and the sales commission income has increased sharply,” said Kang Hyung-gu, secretary of the Financial Consumers’ Association. It’s natural that they operate on a for-profit basis, but we should have considered investor protection first, but it’s a shame that they didn’t.”