In order to facilitate the exchange of Korea and Taiwan's international experiences of handling non-performing loans, the Central Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance on April 14 from 9:00~11:30 a.m. jointly hosted at the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance (2F, 62, Roosevelt Road, Sec. 3, Taipei) the "Seminar on Korea's Experience of Handling its Non-performing Loans" & "The Financial Sector's New Frontier-Handling Non-performing Loans" new book launch. The main focus of this book is to describe how, since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) has effectively used public funds to purchase and appropriately handle the non-performing loans of Korea's financial institutions and the various challenges that have been faced. In addition, the book also explains how, in such difficult circumstances, KAMCO has helped enterprises with non-performing loans rebuild their operations, so that Korea's successful experiences in this regard can be promoted in the countries of Asia and Europe, in order to assist other countries in the handling of their non-performing loans. KAMCO can be said to have helped other countries play the role of a financial firefighter in their respective financial sectors.
In view of Korea's appropriate handling of its non-performing loans, within only a few years both the Korean economy and its financial sector experienced a rapid recovery. The Central Deposit Insurance Corporation has together with the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance helped to promote this book in Taiwan, and with the assistance of Mr. Che-Kuo Cheng, the former chief of the economic unit in the R.O.C. embassy in Seoul, who translated the book into Chinese. The topics discussed in the book include the following: (1) how KAMCO with the help of an overseas road show successfully wrote off non-performing loans, at a time when the prospects for the Korean economy were not good in the eyes of foreign investors; (2) how KAMCO successfully negotiated with financial institutions in 69 countries that were creditors of the Daewoo group and, with their agreement, fully verified the amounts owing to each country, which resulted in a cost saving amounting to several hundred million US dollars; (3) How KAMCO utilized the concept of asset securitization in the handling of non-performing loans, and was awarded more than ten prizes from EuroMoney and other professional organizations for having the best transactions and the most successful asset-backed securities; and (4) the background to how KAMCO introduced an asset management joint venture corporation (JVC-AMC), a corporate restructuring vehicle (CRV), and a corporate restructuring company (CRC) to help enterprises rebuild their operations. The book truly contains a wealth of information.
The event began with an opening ceremony during which opening remarks were presented by both the Chairman of the Central Deposit Insurance Corporation, Mr. Chin-Tsair Tsay, and the President of the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, Dr. Chi Schive. Following this, the former President of KAMCO, Dr. Jae-Ryong Chung, who is also one of the authors of the book, was especially invited to deliver the keynote speech on the topic: "Korea's Experience of Handling its Non-performing Loans". A discussion was arranged, during which the Chairman of the Taiwan Asset Management Corporation (TAMCO), Mr. Rong-Jou Wang, and the President of the Central Deposit Insurance Corporation, Mr. Johnson Chen, shared on Taiwan's experiences of handling the non-performing loans of financial institutions with the other financial specialists, scholars and distinguished guests present.
On the occasion of this seminar and book launch with 180 attendees, together with the enthusiastic response of all those present, the Central Deposit Insurance Corporation in the future will continue to work together with related organizations to hold similar meetings, in the hope that, through the sharing of experiences, both domestic financial institutions and asset management corporations will be provided with valuable reference, and that the objective of facilitating such international exchanges will be achieved.