Korea's Capital Markets Consolidation Act, which finally took effect on Wednesday, was undoubtedly well-intentioned when first conceived a few years ago. The world's 10th biggest capital market punches well below its weight. Commercial banks dominate financing and there are no home-grown investment banks of scale. Almost 50 securities companies fight it out for business which is neither exciting nor especially profitable. Perhaps 70 per cent of industry revenues come from straight agency broking, and commissions are being ground lower by competition. Capital markets themselves are shrinking. The stock market is worth less than in 2005, and equity issuance has slowed to a trickle: last year less than $4bn was raised, versus $15bn in 1999, according to ThomsonReuters. Corporate bond issuance was 60 per cent of the 2002 peak. As a percentage of economic output, capital markets have been in retreat for much of the past decade, even before this financial crisis.
本週三最終生效的南韓《資本市場合並法》(Capital Markets Consolidation Act)在幾年前最初構思時無疑是出於好意。南韓這個世界第十大資本市場有點名不符實。商業銀行佔據了金融業的主體，且沒有一家上規模的本土投資銀行。約50家證券公司你爭我奪，就爲着一些既不激動人心又不是特別能賺錢的業務。約70%的行業收入來自於純粹的經紀業務，佣金則因爲競爭而被壓得更低。資本市場自身正在萎縮。股票市場市值已經低於2005年的水準，股票發行量已縮減成涓涓細流：根據湯森路透(ThomsonReuters)的數據，南韓股票市場去年的融資額還不到40億美元，而1999年時有150億美元。公司債的發行量僅相當於2002年峯值水準的60%。以佔經濟總產出的比例來衡量，資本市場在過去10年的大部分時間一直呈下滑趨勢，甚至在本輪金融危機發生前就開始了。