Cabinet endorses bill for cross-border sales of fund products

SEOUL, June 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Cabinet meeting Tuesday endorsed a bill to allow cross-border sales of fund products among five nations in Asia, officials said.

The bill came about two years after five nations -- South Korea, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand -- signed a preliminary agreement to introduce the "Asia Region Funds Passport" to help regional investors diversify their portfolios, the Financial Services Commission said in a statement.

A fund "passport" system is designed to allow for cross-border transactions of public-offering funds.

Under this arrangement, if a fund is approved in a country, it would be approved in other participating member states without having to meet different regulatory requirements.

The bill requires a financial firm with working capital of more than US$500 million to join the fund "passport" system.

It also bans a financial firm from investing more than 20 percent of its fund assets into its affiliates.
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