The Financial Supervisory Service is elevating the Financial Consumer Protection Bureau (financial consumer protection office) to a "consumer protection control headquarters." Although the organizational overhaul fell through, the move is seen as restructuring the organization and personnel to match the original aim of "strengthening financial consumer protection." The government and the ruling party had tried to spin off and establish a Financial Consumer Protection Agency from the FSS but withdrew the plan.
Lee Chan-jin, the FSS governor, held an "all-staff resolution meeting" at the FSS grand auditorium in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 29th and said, "We will completely revamp the FSS's operations, personnel, and work procedures to center on financial consumer protection."
The FSS will promote the financial consumer protection office to a control headquarters under the senior deputy governor. It also plans to reorganize so that regional headquarters for banking, insurance, small and midsize finance, and financial investment can handle disputes and supervision/inspections in a one-stop manner. A "Financial Consumer Protection Committee" will also be newly established under the governor. The goal is to thoroughly review system improvements and inspection matters related to financial consumer protection.
To strengthen a preventive protection system at the product review and sales stages, the FSS will expand and reorganize the in-house "Task Force (TF) for strengthening preventive financial consumer protection" into the "Financial Consumer Protection Planning Group."
The FSS's decision to focus on strengthening financial consumer protection comes from concern that, although it avoided an organizational overhaul, debate over designating it as a public institution could resurface. There is a strong possibility that the Public Institution Management Committee at the end of January next year will discuss whether to designate the FSS as an other public institution. It is also hard to guarantee that attempts to separate the FSS and the financial consumer protection agency will not recur under the current administration.
Senior Deputy Governor Lee Se-hoon said in a briefing after the resolution meeting regarding the issue of designating the FSS as a public institution, "We will make every effort to strengthen public interest and transparency in the consumer protection function," adding, "Because there is a tradeoff between strengthening public interest/transparency and independence, future discussions will proceed with this balance in mind."
Governor Lee said, "It is true that there has been a work practice that prioritized the soundness of financial companies and that members' preference for financial consumer protection work was low," adding, "We must boldly discard habitual work processes and organizational culture."
The FSS also plans to exercise the strongest possible sanctions, such as a penalty surcharge and business suspension, against financial companies that fall short in financial consumer protection.