South Korea to Prepare Steps to Stabilize Won With Pension Fund

South Korea pledged to take action to stabilize the won, which approached a 16-year low this week, in coordination with state-owned National Pension Service .

Authorities will closely discuss with major supply and demand entities, such as the NPS, to prepare measures for exchange-rate stabilization, the finance ministry said in a mobile-phone message Friday after Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol met with Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang Yong and financial regulators.

Pressure to intervene is intensifying as the won is under pressure from stock outflows and as Koreans boost overseas investment. The won has fallen almost 4% this quarter , the biggest loser in Asia after the yen.

The NPS, Korea’s largest institutional investor, has often helped counter pressure on the won through hedging and FX operations, such as during January when it sold dollars and bought the won.

The won rises 0.6% to 1,457 per dollar, erasing its earlier loss. Global funds have sold about $4.6 billion of the nation’s equities .