The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) carried out a large-scale personnel reshuffle for department heads and support departments. With this rearrangement, 74 out of 75 department heads were newly appointed or transferred. Additionally, the reorganization established a new digital and institutional sector and expanded the organization dedicated to electronic finance.
On the 10th, the FSS announced that it had carried out the organizational restructuring and department head appointments. The FSS explained the background for the large-scale organizational restructuring and personnel changes, noting that they would ‘concentrate all resources of the organization to respond comprehensively to the increased volatility in the financial and foreign exchange markets.’
The FSS elevated the digital and IT-related organization, which was previously under the planning, management, and strategic supervision sector, to an independent institution and promoted the head to vice president. This change was made to respond to the digital transition of the financial system and the introduction of new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as to enhance supervision of the electronic finance sector following the incidents involving TMON and WEMAKEPRICE.
The organization dedicated to electronic finance, including payment gateway and prepaid businesses, was expanded from two teams (with 14 members) to two departments (Electronic Financial Supervision Bureau and Electronic Financial Inspection Bureau, with around 40 members). The newly established Electronic Financial Supervision Bureau will handle regulatory improvements in the electronic finance sector, registration reviews, and oversight of business practices, while the Electronic Financial Inspection Bureau will conduct ongoing surveillance and inspections of payment gateway firms and prepaid vendors.
The FSS established a new public finance protection bureau within the Financial Consumer Protection Department. This bureau will be responsible for overseeing and inspecting lending businesses and debt collection practices. Additionally, a new team dedicated to remedying damages from illegal private lending was created within the Bureau for the Response to Public and Private Finance Violations.
To strengthen the analysis of financial product sales and consumer complaint investigations, the existing Product Review and Sales Analysis Bureau has been renamed to the Financial Consumer Protection Investigation Bureau. In the insurance sector, the existing Insurance Risk Management Bureau will be renamed the Insurance Actuarial Product Supervision Bureau. The investigation team of the Capital Markets Special Judicial Police Bureau will expand from two to three teams, and the Pension Supervision Office will move from the Public Finance sector to the Financial Investment sector.
Alongside the organizational restructuring, the FSS reassigned 74 out of 75 department heads, excluding Jin Lee, the director of the Financial Market Stability Bureau. More than half (36) of the department heads from the headquarters were newly promoted.
Through this personnel reshuffle, the rank of the chief department head has been lowered from the first phase of public recruitment to the first to fourth phases and experienced employees. By age group, individuals born between 1972 and 1975 became the backbone of the department heads.