The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service on Tuesday said of the total US$720 million (US$1= W1,160) Korean financial firms had in Lehman Brothers, banks invested W120 billion, insurance firms W210 billion, and securities firms W390 billion.

The National Pension Service also lost heavily, seeing 66 percent of the total of US$72.16 million it had in Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG go up in smoke. The National Pension Service had US$41.9 million worth of bonds and stocks in AIG and suffered an 84 percent loss.

An financial industry insider said apart from investment by domestic companies, total assets held by Lehman Brothers in Korea tally up to W1 trillion. “If Lehman Brothers try to sell what they have in Korea, the Korean financial industry will suffer further as a huge sum of money will be pulled out of the country,” he said.

AIG has a total of W7.3 trillion worth of assets in Korea, but W6.4 trillion of it is being protected for insurance policy-holders. The cost for the construction of the Seoul International Finance Center in Yeouido is covered by separate funds, so it will not be affected by the liquidity crisis at headquarters. As Merrill Lynch’s assets in Korea will be taken over by the Bank of America, it is unlikely that they will be liquidated.

(englishnews@chosun.com )