사모펀드 규제의 한계와 투자자 보호 개선 방안

This paper discusses the ways to protect individual private fund investors, under the recognition that the problem of an asset manager's agent or violation of fiduciary duty is the most important cause of damage to private fund investors. The main contents of this paper are as follows. First, the fund system divided into public funds and private funds is the one which limits the scope of each individual investor’ fund investment, with acknowledging that there are differences in each individual investor' ability to judge investments and take investment risks. Second, the government's regulation and supervision on private funds, where the market monitoring function cannot be systematically utilized, has the limitation to function for investors protection. Third, the financial authorities provided a major cause of individual investors’ damage by simultaneously easing regulations for private funds and expanding the scope of qualified individual investors to invest in private funds. Fourth, the regulation change on the private funds system in 2021 was insufficient to supervise the compliance of asset management companies with fiduciary duties though the government emphasized on strengthening regulations for individual investors’ protection. In particular, the government made a mistake maintaining qualified individual investors who are permitted in investing in private funds by only the criteria based on the investment amount. It leaves the room for individuals who lack the ability to take the risk of private funds to suffer damage from private fund investment. Fifth, in order to strengthen the protection of private fund investors, it should be prioritized to abolish the provisions which the qualified individual investors can invest in private funds. Also the regulation should be supplemented for advancing investor protection against the breach of fiduciary duty by the asset management companies. Sixth, ultimately, the financial authorities should shift its policy direction from prioritizing quantitative market growth to enhancing the market integrity in fund markets.