Hong Sok Hour says the real work is about to begin

THE Chief Executive of the CSX, Hong Sok Hour, says he is considering lower fees for stock transactions, but has to get approval from the Ministry of Economy and Finance as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission to do it.

“We are considering the possibility of lowering our fees. I am open to that possibility, but we need to get approval,” he said.

“I’m thinking of some kind of mechanism or structure that will allow some kind of flexibility because we determine our fees based on the trading volume.”

Hong, who had to be on his toes all yesterday morning and through the lunch as all the government and financial leaders joined the event, was happy that the opening of the CSX came off well.

Now, he said, is the time for the hard work of preparing companies for CSX listing to begin.

“We approve membership based on the requirement that they will have to be ready within less than three months,” he said.

“We want to push our underwriters to work hard on these listings.”

Asked if any private sector candidates were ready to list on CSX, Hong said: “I hope that after today we will know better about that.

“I’m very optimistic about the future of our stock market. We passed one hurdle, but we have many hurdles ahead.”

Hong said he wanted to meet in the coming months with securities firm people, fund managers and people interested in trading in order to show them how the CSX will operate.

“It is important for people to come forward and express interest. This is very encouraging for us.”

The CSX now has nine registered members: one broker, one dealer and seven underwriters.

Asked about the Korean Stock Exchange people who have been working with Hong at CSX, he said “so far so good”.

Now, Hong wants everybody involved in the development of the stock exchange to get to work.

“There’s a lot of work yet to be done between now and the first day of trading, which is slated for some time in December this year,” he said.