in places like Hong Kong and Singapore. Such outsourcing is illegal in Korea. "Such practices are part of the foreign banks' desire to manage their entire Asian portfolio," Kim said. "In cases of big investment banks, trading on a regional level can have a great impact on the domestic financial markets as such management can lead to sharp changes to the portfolios of the banks' local branches." The FSS plans to inspect 15 foreign banks operating in Korea every year to monitor their fund management from this year, citing the need to proactively manage potential market risks. "Foreign banking branches (in Korea) are considered to have a great effect in increasing the volatility of capital flows in and out of the market," the FSS said in a separate statement, adding such branches tend to take on short-term foreign currency borrowings to conduct derivatives or government bonds trading. Kim told reporters HSBC Holdings PLC and Credit Agricole S.A. have already been sanctioned for improper outsourcing of operations involving derivatives. He added that another European bank may be sanctioned fohn Investment Research Conference in New York. Microsoft's nine-person board, including Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, supports Ballmer, a source close to the board told Reuters on Thursday. Microsoft -- the largest U.S. company by market value in the late 1990s -- has been overtaken by Apple Inc and International Business Machines Corp in market value, and is no longer seen as a dominating force in technology after a failure to capitalize on Internet and mobile markets. Before Thursday's gain, the stock had been down 6 percent in the past two weeks after Microsoft agreed to pay $8.5 billion for Internet phone service Skype, a move that mystified many investors. Einhorn said it was time for Microsoft to consider strategic alternatives for its money-losing online business, which has so far failed to win share from Google Inc. "Clearly, some people are calling for a change," said Sid Parakh, analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen. "If you look at the financial performance, that's been fine. But I think the issue is broader than that. "If you look at search, mobile, tablet, these are areas they should have been investing in, and they have -- but they weren't able to get it right," he added. But: "If there was any reason to believe the board was not with Steve, it would be a different situation. But the board seems to be behind Steve." IT'S ON The online services unit, which runs the Bing search engine and MSN Web portal, had a loss of $726 million last quarter and has now lost $7 billion in four years. "What it boils down to is that Microsoft has had a load of initiatives which haven't shown traction yet," said one U.S. equity fund manager at an investment house featuring on