"Chaebol Reform is not Chaebol Dismantlement"

Lee Heun Jae, the head of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) indicated on October 25 that the government's policy to reform chaebol does not mean chaebol dismantlement. Lee said that chaebol reform's purpose is to change their structure so they can have a more advanced form. He continued that chaebol reform will be successfully completed, when subsidiaries are more independent.
Lee commented that mutual payment guarantees among subsidiaries is the main obstacle to restructuring in the five biggest chaebols. He said, 'The FSC is considering a way to evaluate the guarantees and then raise the interest rates.' The FSC already proposed that chaebols remove unnecessary guarantees first and then exchange guarantees among financial institutions regarding payment guarantees that have been interchanged among different businesses of the same chaebol.
In other news, Lee stated that many foreign financial institutions were interested in acquiring Seoul and Korea First Bank and he expected a decision on who will acquire the banks during November.