| Headline: Intervention, interference or encouragement? Source: Euromoney Date: February 2001 Author: Chris Cockerill With a first round of bank restructuring that killed off more than half the country’s banks behind it, Korea is now facing up to consolidating what is left, ostensibly to enhance competitiveness and create economies of scale. It’s not clear, though, that the timing is right or that the government’s approach to mergers is appropriate or sufficiently disinterested. It’s been a busy seven weeks in Korea’s financial sector, with the country’s efforts to reform the corporate and banking sectors creating serious conflict. A bank president was held hostage in his office and the leader of one of Korea’s largest unions went into hiding, leaving his unfortunate deputy to face the rap – a pair of handcuffs. On New Year’s Eve, W7 trillion ($5.7 billion) was pumped into six ailing banks in the wake of conglomerate Daewoo’s collapse – this on top of the W64 trillion already injected into the tottering sector. Also, despite scepticism from the IMF, a plan to consolidate five banks, creating what some cynics have dubbed a mega-ailing bank, was put under starter’s orders. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||