(Islamic Finance and Regulatory Challenges in Korea)

Abstract

Korean Abstract: 본 논문에서는 최근 들어 급성장을 보이고 있는 이슬람금융을 국내 금융기관이 금융업무로서 취급이 가능한 지 여부와 도입시 금융규제상 검토가 필요한 사항들을 제시하였다. 즉 이슬람금융상품 중 은행상품의 경우 현행 은행법상 시설대여, 상품매매, 할부금융 등은 은행에게 허용되어 있지 않아 각각 이슬람금융상품에 해당하는 리스금융의 성격을 가진 이쟈라, 할부금융의 성격을 가진 무라바하와 이스티스나의 이용은 불가능한 실정이며, 아울러 무라바하예금의 형태로 이용하는 것도 투자성 예금의 취급이 현행 은행법상 불확실한 점에서 이용은 어렵다는 점을 지적하였다. 이슬람금융상품 중 은행상품유형의 이용이 전세계적으로 빠르게 확산되고 있는 추세를 감안할 때 은행의 타업금지의 예외로서 이들 상품들의 취급을 허용할 필요가 있다. 이슬람보험 역시 주식회사형태에서는 취급이 불가능하며 보험회사 외 에는 불가능하다. 이외 자금조달수단으로 이슬람증권인 수쿡의 발행 가부는 현행 자본시장법이 포괄주의를 취하고 있어 수용이 불가능한 것은 아니나 수쿡 발행의 기초가 되는 거래구조별로 그 성격은 채무증권형, 지분증권 내지 투자계약증권, 자산담보형증권 등으로 세분화어 있는 점, 샤리아 적격성, 투자자보호 등을 고려할 때 자본시장법에 별도의 규정을 마련하는 것이 타당하다. 다만 규제부담을 고려할 때 집합투자개념에서 제외하는 취지의 규정이 필요하다. 그밖에 이슬람금융상품의 취급이 금융업무로서 허용될 경우 금융기관의 지배구조와 건전성규제는 물론 금융소비자 보호를 위한 영업행위 규제의 정비 및 이슬람금융상품예금자보호제도 허용 및 기타 인프라로서 유동성관리수단들의 강구와 지원방안들이 후속적으로 이루어져야 할 것이다. English Abstract: This paper attempts to introduce an evolving Islamic Finance and to figure out what kind of legal hurdles it has in using Islamic Financing transactions under the Korean financial regulatory framework. The Korean financial institutions may face some challenges as they seek to participate and catch the business chance in the Islamic finance industry and market. Islamic banking products have many differences to compare with conventional banking products. First of all, islamic bank is not allowed to transact on the basis of credit or cash loans. Instead of that, they use specific Islamic contracts as substitutes. Second, according to the Shariah, Islamic bank should not give previously fixed-return to the clients. The lender should have relationship with clients based on participation in risks and rewards on the basis of pre-agreed ratios. Third, the bank which attempts to provide financial products or services to clients, they should get authorization through the review process of Sharia advisors. In Korea, Bank is a statutorily defined in Korean Banking Act. Also, financial institutions are limited in their powers to engage in non-authorized activities as business. Therefore, Islamic finance providers in Korea should be allowed to engage in the Islamic finance and also their offering islamic financial products should be sharia compliant products also. According to the Korean Banking Act, equipment or house leasing business is not included as a permissible activities of Bank. Additionally, bank is not permitted to enter into partnerships or joint ventures in order to prevent exposing the bank to the unlimited liability caused by others. Islamic investment product such as sukuk is lease-based Securities in nature. So it needs always commodity transaction in advance, while traditional investment products does not. Regarding sukuk, the legal framework should provide clear rules for the establishment, management of liquidity, and accounting of special purpose vehicles, fair treatment of taxation. On the other hand, takaful is a mutual insurance with joint risk sharing, while conventional insurance is non-mutual insurance. That is, takaful is based on the concept of mutuality among insured parties. Due to the character of risk sharing, it probably might be interpreted as not-permissible products in Korea. Islamic finance is a relatively new concept in Korea because of small population of Muslims and lack of public awareness. Korean regulatory framework should accommodate Islamic finance by allowing for significant flexibility and adaption. This paper argues that despite having lots of legal hurdles to integrate Islamic finance within the current financial regulatory framework, Korea government should try to find the way to create new market for Islamic finance and financial products in the near future. For this purpose, this paper contains four sections. After introductory remarks in section I, some background information about Islamic finance including the principles of Islamic finance and main factors contributing to the rapid growth of the Islamic financial industry worldwide have been explained in section II. Section III. address the status and prospects of Islamic finance in Korea in respect of regulatory treatment. Finally, Section IV. concludes the paper.