Household HSBC Watch

In addition to recent articles about HSBC in Vietnam and India, we must add Korea to the list, since HSBC wants a stake in KEB. HSBC said they want to concentrate on emerging markets, but there is volitility in emerging markets. What is clear is that global banks can participate in bad tactics in one country, while buying in to other countries at lower prices. The subprime disaster made that fact perfectly clear. It is an issue that must be addressed.

Korea has seen the biggest exodus of foreign capital among Asian emerging markets since the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Korea institute of Finance researcher Lee Yoon-seok in a report on the issue Sunday said foreign investors net sold stocks worth US$32.3 billion in the Korean stock market between August, when the U.S. subprime crisis started, and February. The net sale volume was the largest among major Asian emerging markets like Taiwan, India, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.