![\"Deputy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ec73f155-895a-4284-a04c-e1175db4da25.jpg\")
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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol \/ Yonhap<\/p>\n
Financial and monetary authorities are seeking to mobilize the National Pension Service (NPS) in a bid to stabilize the weakening won against the U.S. dollar, according to officials Monday.<\/p>\n
The move comes as NPS, Korea\u2019s state-run pension fund, is expanding its overseas investments from an asset pool valued at over 1,400 trillion won ($948.38 billion).<\/p>\n
Estimated at hundreds of trillions of won, such large-sale investments require converting substantial amounts of won into dollars, driving capital outflows and raising concerns as the exchange rate remains above the worrisome 1,400 level.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the won closed at 1,477.1 per dollar in daytime trading, a decline of 1.5 won.<\/p>\n
This marked the sixth consecutive day of losses and brought the currency to a seven-month low.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Economy and Finance said it held a closed-door meeting on Monday with the Bank of Korea (BOK), NPS and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, under which NPS operates.<\/p>\n
It was the first four-way meeting since Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol and BOK Gov. Rhee Chang-yong agreed during a separate talk on Nov. 14 to \u201cwork closely with key market participants, including NPS.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus was on mitigating foreign exchange volatility stemming from NPS\u2019 large-scale overseas investments,\u201d a finance ministry official said, declining to provide further details.<\/p>\n
![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2588c14b-d51b-426f-9eb9-465700492310.jpg\")
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Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong \/ Yonhap<\/p>\n
Sources familiar with the matter speculated that options for NPS to take a more active role in currency hedging may also have been discussed.<\/p>\n
Such a role could involve increasing the supply of dollars in the market by partially selling U.S. dollar-denominated overseas assets, such as stocks and bonds, if the won-to-dollar rate rises excessively.<\/p>\n
They also said that up to 10 percent of NPS\u2019 overseas assets may be used for currency hedging, with the ratio adjusted more flexibly depending on market conditions.<\/p>\n
However, concerns remain that actively using the NPS as a tool to stabilize the exchange rate could negatively affect the management of citizens\u2019 retirement assets.<\/p>\n
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an economics professor said the government will need to \u201ccarefully balance mobilizing NPS to help stabilize the exchange rate without undermining the fund\u2019s investment returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some sources added that the government and NPS are also considering increasing the proportion of domestic investment.<\/p>\n
They noted that raising the share of domestic stocks could help slow the pace at which NPS converts won into dollars, thereby easing pressure on the foreign exchange market.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong urged the fund management division at NPS to \u201crespond swiftly, based on a thorough analysis of the market, to safeguard the profitability and stability of NPS.\u201d<\/p>\n
She implicitly referred to the overseas investments of NPS, which are growing annually, including an estimated 702 trillion won in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol \/ Yonhap Financial and monetary authorities are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-303918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}