Monetary Policy Board member must unload shares

Cho Yoon-je

The stock holdings of Cho Yoon-je, a former Korean ambassador to the United States recently appointed to the Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Board, pose a conflict to his duties to make monetary policy decisions, the central bank announced Tuesday.

Cho will either have to sell the shares or put them in a blind trust within the next month.

Cho, one of three people appointed to the Monetary Policy Board in April, was excluded from the board’s rate-setting meeting on May 28 as his stock portfolio exceeded a 30-million-won ($24,840) limit set by the Public Service Ethics Act.

It was the first time a board member was prevented from voting at a meeting.

Before his appointment to the board on April 21, Cho sold shares in five companies he owned, but maintained shares in three. The remaining three are Kosdaq-listed firms that were seen by Cho as unrelated to his new position.

The Blind Trust of Shares Review Committee under the Ministry of Personnel Management on Monday evening, however, concluded that Cho’s stock holdings were related to his duties on the board.

The three companies are Security Global Alliance, a security solutions provider; Solid, a communications equipment company; and Sun Kwang, a harbor logistics company.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]