[South Korea imposed a record fine of US$1.2 billion on primary dealers of treasury bonds for collusion in tenders] On November 11, South Korea’s antitrust regulators imposed a record fine of 1.63 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) on more than a dozen local banks and securities firms because these institutions conspired to manipulate treasury bond tenders for more than three years. It follows a year-long investigation by regulators. The Korea Fair Trade Commission said in a statement on Wednesday that between January 2020 and June 2023, primary dealers exchanged bidding yield information or reached agreement on bidding yields and quantities in 150 Korean government bond tenders. South Korea's government bond market is about 1,261 trillion won ($942 billion), and regulators found that dealers agreed on specific bid yields or quantities in 145 of the tenders. KB Securities, South Korea's fourth largest securities firm by total assets, was slapped with the highest fine of 332.2 billion won, accounting for about one-fifth of the total fine, followed by NH Investment Securities and Mirae Asset Securities.