Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said on the 9th that he would establish the protection of financial consumers as the FSS's top priority.
Lee said this in his New Year business plan presented in the morning at the Financial Supervisory Service headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. He said he would drastically strengthen consumer protection across the entire life cycle of financial products—design and manufacturing, review, sales, and post-sale management.
Lee said, "In preparation for the introduction of one-sided binding force, we will secure objectivity by establishing criteria for referring cases to the Dispute Mediation Committee, and we will advance the dedicated consultative body for indemnity health insurance to facilitate swift dispute resolution." He also unveiled plans to quickly issue alerts when consumer damage is anticipated to block the spread of harm early.
Lee added, "We will focus inspections on concerns likely to harm consumers, such as the sale of high-risk financial investment products, and promptly investigate suspected unfair transaction related to investment banking (IB) and politically themed stocks," and said, "We will shorten the review and inspection cycles for the accounting of major listed companies to sternly crack down on market-disrupting acts and enhance trust in the capital market."
He also stressed rooting out a culture that prioritizes short-term performance-driven sales to establish a sound management culture. Lee said, "We will review the independence of bank holding company boards and the process for appointing chief executive officers (CEOs), and address deficiencies through a corporate governance improvement task force (TF)."
Lee also said he would push for innovation in inspection work. He said, "As a rule, we will limit interim announcements of inspection results and improve the overall inspection process, including extending prior notice periods, to reduce the burden on financial companies undergoing inspections," adding, "We will enhance fairness by improving the sanctions disclosure system to make sanction details easy to search and by diversifying the composition of civilian members of the Sanctions Review Committee."
The Financial Supervisory Service also plans to push internal management reforms related to operations. Lee presented as concrete measures the disclosure of detailed use of the head's business promotion expenses and strengthening management disclosures through ALIO.
He also mentioned measures to improve the convenience of financial company operations. Lee explained, "We will build an integrated system for licensing and registration tasks," adding, "In 2026, we will first develop the types with the most licensing applications and expand it to all types by 2027." He also said, "We will advance the illegal information monitoring system by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) technology into the unfair transaction investigation system."
On productive finance, he said, "We will push to improve capital regulations by financial industry, such as insurance, and to refine supervisory regimes centered on key risks." Lee cited as an example reducing required capital when expanding equity investments in productive sectors through policy programs.
He also emphasized responding to livelihood-related financial crimes. He said, "To eradicate livelihood-related financial crimes such as illegal private lending, we will promote a cooperative body with special judicial police," adding, "We will establish a management system for each stage—account management, transfer, and withdrawal—to block the movement of criminal funds."
On financial sector security, Lee said, "We will strengthen preemptive responses to vulnerabilities and fully operate an integrated control system to reinforce the cyber threat response framework," adding, "We will establish guidelines for responding to major electronic financial incidents to systematize preventing the spread of consumer damage, rapid recovery, and recurrence prevention procedures."
On the virtual asset market, he said, "We will prepare for the effective implementation of phase-two legislation and conduct planned investigations into high-risk areas such as price rigging and the spread of false information," adding, "Through system improvements by industry, we will support financial industry innovation and the securing of future growth potential."