South Korea’s Ministry of Finance and Economy has extracted eleven years of foreign exchange

South Korea’s Ministry of Finance and Economy has extracted eleven years of foreign exchange records from seven export companies, bypassing formal written notices in a sweep justified by market stabilization.

A Decade of Private Financial Data Demanded

The undisclosed administrative directive targeted transactions spanning from 2015 through 2025. Seven export companies were ordered to hand over granular financial documentation covering foreign currency assets and liabilities, deposits, real estate holdings, and securities.

This reporting mandate applied to corporate headquarters as well as international branches and foreign subsidiaries. Companies were further required to lay bare their yearly foreign exchange transactions, loans, spot currency trades, foreign hedging strategies, and internal governance frameworks for foreign currency asset management.

To justify the sweep, the ministry pointed to Article 20 of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. The statutory provision grants the minister power to demand necessary reports from transaction parties to ensure the law’s enforcement.

Secretive Summons via Telegram and Personal Phones

Legislative scrutiny also exposed unorthodox methods used to summon corporate executives ahead of the records demand. An inquiry by Lawmaker Park Soo-young of the People Power Party revealed that none of the seven affected companies received formal written invitation letters.

Instead, corporate officials received notifications via phone calls, personal mobile phones, and the Telegram messaging app just one to three days before gathering.

The closed-door session convened on December 18, last year, under the direction of Kim Yong-beom, who served at the time as the presidential policy chief. High-ranking executives from the seven companies attended, only to be given virtually no opportunity to speak.

An anonymous corporate representative who attended the meeting told Ilkan NTN that Kim Yong-beom spent most of the time speaking, while the companies were mostly just listening.

Parliamentary Audit Exposes Classified Directive

The confidential ministry document came to light on the 6th during a parliamentary audit, when Park revealed it. Prior to the disclosure, the ministry had rejected the lawmaker’s requests for the documents, maintaining that the existence of the directive itself was secret.

Park sharply criticized the broad information sweep on the floor. Park noted that demanding eleven years of data and overseas subsidiary management information from private exporters goes beyond the scope of necessary reporting under the law and is close to an abuse of authority, according to Ilkan NTN.

Park Suspects Government Pressured Companies to Lower Exchange Rate

The high-level summons coincided with turbulence in the won-dollar exchange rate. After hovering in the early 1,400-won range in early November last year, the rate climbed steeply through mid-December before plunging 53.8 won within a week following the presidential policy chief’s meeting.

Park stated during the audit that she suspected the Lee Jae-myung administration may have pressured companies to convert export proceeds and other foreign currency into won to induce a drop in the exchange rate.

Operational friction followed. One participating firm submitted an appeal to the lawmaker detailing the intense pressure businesses faced under the administration to convert funds.

A corporate representative told Ilkan NTN that the government should not undermine corporate autonomy by excessively interfering in the operation of foreign exchange funds, adding that there is a need to discard the approach of equating corporate foreign currency management with foreign currency outflows.

Concluding the audit, Park characterized the intervention as an infringement on commercial confidentiality and corporate autonomy, asserting that exporters require an independent business environment and predictable policymaking.