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Korean regulators investigate banks over $6.5B tied to Kimchi premium

South Korean banks are being investigated for their role in facilitating $6.5 billion in suspicious overseas remittances which have been tied to companies arbitraging cryptocurrency.  According to an Aug. 15 report from Asia Times, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) ordered an investigation into South Korean banks last month after identifying a significant amount of overseas remittance transactions at the end of June. The investigation found that a majority of the $6.5 billion remitted overseas between Jan 2021 and Jun 2022 came from crypto exchange accounts before being sent out of the country, suggesting some Korean companies are exploiting the “Kimchi premium (kimp).” The Kimchi premium is the gap in cryptocurrency prices in South Korean exchanges compared to forei...