The Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kim Ki-sik on Friday stressed the need to secure retail investors’ trust in investment funds held by public, in a meeting with chief executives of asset management companies in South Korea, according to the watchdog.

In a closed-door meeting with CEOs of 15 asset management companies that took place in headquarters of the Korea Financial Investment Association, Kim also called on the CEOs to boost the returns of their pension funds and strengthen internal control.

Kim urged the asset management companies to play a crucial role in advancing the financial market by drawing more retail investment into funds, which would ultimately stabilize the overheated real estate market, according to the FSS.

As of 2016, the net asset value of investment funds offered to public accounted for 12.2 percent of the national gross domestic product, which comes in sharp contrast with that of the United States and the United Kingdom at 87.8 percent and 57.1 percent, respectively, according to the FSS.

Also, the figure is in contrast to ratio of the retail investors’ trade volume to the entire trade, at 67 percent.

Kim said the retail investors’ low demand for investment funds stemmed from lack of trust in the products by the asset management funds.

This came just a month after the ex-FSS Gov. Choe Heung-sik met CEOs of asset management firms and urged them to enhance risk management capacity amid heightening market volatility. Choe resigned from his post in March on allegations of exerting influence on the entry-level employee hiring process of Hana Financial Group in 2013, when he was leading the group.

Former lawmaker Kim claimed the top post of the financial watchdog earlier in April. But he is under siege for revelation that he, as a lawmaker, traveled overseas on sponsorships by financial institutions in an alleged lobbying attempt.

The Friday meeting is Kim’s second with heads of financial companies under the oversight of the FSS. On Tuesday, Kim held a meeting with 17 CEOs of brokerages and the chief of Kofia, Kwon Yong-won, to call for stronger internal control.

By Son Ji-hyoung 
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)