Capabilities
We facilitate your transactions

Our core expertiese in banking benefits the following areas:

Risk-hedging solutions (FX risk, interest rate risk, and other market risks)

Are you preparing a cross-border transaction? 

Does your deal involve two currencies or more? 

Would you like to manage the overall cash flows to be fixed and predictable? 

Is your deal exposed to any market risks such as FX and interest risks?

Should those risks be an unintended part of your trade, you should consider removing them by hedging those market risks.

Tell us the nature of your deal, and we will provide hedging solutions most suitable for your transaction. 

We will guide you through all the market risks that are associated with your trade. 

We will advise you with your hedging policies. 

We will provide you with hedging solutions.

Fee: USD 20K-150K per trade depending on complexity and transaction size. 

If you'd like us to monitor all your transactions for hedging trades until the end, our ongoing recurring fee is moderate: only 2-8bps p.a. of the transaction. The minimum recurring fee is U$20K p.a. 

The hedging service is particularly useful for private equity, family offices, investment advisors, investment firms, and securities companies that do not have their own department specializing in hedging market risks.

What we have observed over the years is that almost all specialists deeply involved in those trades often lack knowledge hedging solutions. As a result, we have often spoken directly on their behalf with their law firms such as Linklaters, Orrick, and other multinational law firms when drafting their documentations.

Another observance is that at the first tier banks, things all go smoothly. But at the second tier / regional banks or in the minor league, we have seen many hiccups - completely unnecessary, unprofessional, and unhumorous. Those inexperienced hedges often lead to ineffieciecies and operational burdens down the road and bring about high overhead costs. They range from higher execution prices to payment failures (delays, etc.); and from avoidable extra reportings resulting from the lack of experience to having to restructure the transaction after some time.

Valuation & Pricing for Fair Value, Mark-to-Market, and Historical Value

We provide independent valuation and pricing for your trades - either existing or new. 

Asset classes that we can valuate: 

• Fixed Income

• Foreign Exchange

• Interest Rates

• Commodities

• Derivatives (interest rates, FX, commodities, and credit)

• Equities (only listed; we're most appropriate for equity-derivatives on listed stocks)

• Some credit products if we have market data for those credit products. You may provide us us with necessary data for valuation for our consideration. (We won't rely on your data and will cross-check.)

Product ranges: 

• Simple to complicated

• Vanilla to exotics, and anything in between.

Our valuation service starts from USD 1,500 per transaction depending on complexity. 

Note that our fee is only 1/10 - 1/4 of typical fees charged by other service providers. 

• B2B inquiries are welcome. 

• Our pricing and valuation services fees are wholesale. Compare our fees to those of accounting firms or other valuation agencies. 

Our valuation coverage is wide. We cooperate with a handful of service providers in this segment. The total workforce exceeds 1,000 employees for this service. 

We can provide valuation and pricing service within a few days for new customers. For a returning customer for the same or similar trade, we will provide valuation even sooner. 

For a path-dependent-options product, budget extra three business days for a new customer. 

Reasons for obtaining independent valuation: 

• You suspect that your dealer/broker's valuation is unrealistic.

• You would like to get a price from a third party on your trade.

• You are preparing for a lawsuit and need pricing for a fair market value.

• You consider replacing your investment advisor because of high hidden fees.

• Your attorney needs explanation and requires an independent valuation for your case.

• You would like to know the unwinding price before you actually terminate your existing trade. 

Please note that while you may use our valuation result for however you see fit including in your legal matter(s), if you would like us to testify, say, in court, please get in touch with us for a quote for any additional service from our part. We can provide testimony and all the white papers explaining at length our valuation and pricing. 

We have provided in the past similar services to MNCs, multi-billion-dollar, listed companies for their suits against Lehman Brothers (i.e. Lehman Brothers Bankhaus; Lehman Brothers Commodities Services; etc.). 

We have also spoken directly with their legal counter-party representing Lehman for negotiating for a better settlement price. 

Our role is limited to fair valuation and price negotiation. We do not provide legal services. (We can, however, make recommendations as to which law firm may be best for your case.) Should it be the case that your lawyer or law firm is a regional one so that it lacks expertise in complicated financial instruments, we can cooperate with your legal representative on your case. 

Another real situation for our service was that a regional bank wanted to enter into a hedging trade, but their valuation agency, the one that they always used for their hedge accounting, expressed an opinion contrary to their expectation. When we looked into the trade, it was simple, and we agreed with the client. In conclusion, the client could enter into a hedging trade for their hedge accounting. 

Feel free to shop around for valuation or opinions when you disagree with your service provider. 

Please note that we do not appraise real estate or physical assets. Find appraisers in your local area. 

Trade Arrangement, Order Management, & Trade Execution

As part of a hedging solution, upon request,  we provide transactional services to facilitate your needs such as hedging foreign exchange risks, interest rate risks, and cashflow mismatching risks.

We will train you to place your own orders directly to your dealer/broker, but if youd like us to place orders to your intermediary, we may be of service. 

Note that in any of these cases, we do not handle your capital - i.e. we do NOT touch a dime of your money. We do not come in contact with your asset either directly or indirectly as it is under your company's name in an account with a financial institution of your own choice. 

What we do is to provide hedging servies through advice and consulting mostly. In some cases, where applicable and permitted by your local regulations, if you'd like us to place orders directly to your prime brokerage house, you may authorize us to place orders on your behalf. All the orders are under your company's name. Just as an employee of your company places an order to a dealer under your company's name, your company may include us as an authorized person to execute on your behalf with your dealer/broker. 

Why authorize us to place orders on your behalf? 

You are in a different time zone during which market liquidity may be limited. 

You want a third party to monitor more closely at the market with which you may be less familiar. 

Your workforce does not have expertise in the financial markets, and your company wishes to avoid human errors when placing orders.

Note that this is an ad hoc service only for those who require our further assistance. Alternatively, we can simply arrange relevant deals and orders and then have your broker/dealer call you for executions so that you can execute by yourselves. 

The hedging service is particularly useful for private equity, family office, investment advisors, investment firms, and securities companies that do not have presence onshore in Korea. 

Obviously, should you be a multi-national insitution with an established presence in Korea or another market where your own employees and representatives can execute by themselves, good for you. The explained ad hoc service is mainly for those that do not have a strong presence in Korea or their AUM is USD 2bn or less in which case, your firm most likely does not have a decicated team specializing in market-risk-hedging.