Lazard, the investment house, has won approval from the South Korean government to launch a local asset management business, becoming the 55th fund manager in the $334 billion market, a regulatory agency said, according to a report by Reuters.

The Financial Services Commission said in a statement that it gave out a business license to the US investment bank and three other licenses to small South Korean asset managers.

Meanwhile, also in Asia, the asset management arm of Belgian financial services provider KBC Groep has won approval to invest in China's capital markets under the country's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan said, according to Reuters.

As a result of Lazard’s winning of regulatory approval, it will be the 16th foreign fund management company in the fourth-largest economy in Asia, joining the likes of Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and ING.

South Korea's asset management industry has been growing at a double digit rate, buoyed by retail money inflows to stock funds and eased regulations. The country's new mandatory corporate pension scheme has also been behind global asset managers' rush into the market.

But intensifying competition and a sluggish stock market have resulted in a number of copycat funds, with latecomers struggling to develop unique products.

Separately, AXA, Europe’s second-biggest insurer, will buy half of a South Korean asset manager from unlisted Kyobo Life Insurance Co for an undisclosed sum.