커버드본드 법제화의 효용과 한계

Covered bonds are regarded as not only an effective tool for Korean banks to finance long-term funds stably but also effective means to improve the chronic structure of the household debts which heavily rely on short-term borrowings at floating rates. In order to facilitate issuance of covered bonds by Korean financial institutions, Covered Bonds Act of Korea was enacted on January 14, 2014. There were a couple of structured covered bond issuances by Korean financial institutions in 2009 and 2010. At that time, the structure of the transaction was very complicated due to the absence of specific legislation that enables the issuer to allocate or “ring fence” certain of its assets solely to “cover” liabilities owed to covered bondholders. Since then, Korean financial institutions had been requesting specific legislation dealing with these issues. Finally, the Covered Bond Act is in place, however, Korea is yet to see the issuance of statutory covered bonds pursuant to this legislation. This article first reviews and analyses the applicable rules and procedures to be followed for issuance of covered bonds pursuant to the Covered Bond Act. This article then attempts to explore the reasons for such inactiveness in the Korean financial market at the moment and what needs to be done to promote issuance of statutory covered bonds by Korean financial institutions.