Secondary financial institutions (mutual finance institutions, savings banks, insurers, card companies, and others that are not banks) appear to have mostly applied to the Financial Supervisory Service for pilot adoption ahead of the introduction of the responsibility map in July this year. The Financial Supervisory Service set the application deadline for the responsibility map for pilot operations as Apr. 10.
According to the financial authorities on the 3rd, about two weeks after the Financial Supervisory Service began accepting pilot applications for responsibility maps on the 14th of last month, most credit-specialized financial companies (card companies and others) and savings banks expressed their intention to participate in the pilot and submitted responsibility maps. A responsibility map is a document that allocates and organizes in advance the scope and content of the responsibilities that the executives of related departments must bear when a financial incident occurs, prepared with the aim of strengthening internal controls.
The financial sector is sequentially introducing responsibility maps under the Act on Corporate Governance of Financial Companies implemented in 2024. Banks, financial holding companies, and securities companies and insurers with total assets of 5 trillion won or more all submitted last year, and savings banks with assets of 700 billion won or more must submit by July this year, while those with less than 700 billion won must submit by July next year.
Once a responsibility map is submitted to the authorities, it applies immediately, but the Financial Supervisory Service said it will not hold institutions accountable for imperfect internal control obligations during the pilot period from Apr. 11 to July 2. If institutions detect and correct their employees' legal violations on their own, sanctions will be mitigated or exempted.
Secondary financial institutions appear to be taking proactive steps as the Financial Supervisory Service offers benefits for early adoption of responsibility maps. An official at a card company said, "Lee Chan-jin, FSS governor, mentioned responsibility maps at a meeting last month, so we determined it would be better to participate early."