The Financial Supervisory Service will disclose detailed records of business promotion expenses used by the governor starting this year. The disclosure cycle will also be shortened from once a year to quarterly. As the Financial Supervisory Service's designation as a public institution was deferred this year with a condition to enhance operational transparency, this measure follows from that condition.
According to the financial authorities on the 26th, the Financial Supervisory Service plans to disclose, by each transaction, the first-quarter business promotion expenses used by Governor Lee Chan-jin within April. The Financial Supervisory Service currently divides purposes of use into only three categories—policy-related, consultations with related institutions, and family events—and briefly releases only the monthly number of uses and total amount. Starting in the first quarter of this year, it plans to list the date, purpose of use, and amount for every payment in the disclosure of business promotion expenses.
The government deferred its decision to designate the Financial Supervisory Service as a public institution this year, attaching conditions to enhance public interest and transparency. The conditions included disclosing detailed records of the institution head's business promotion expenses. The government plans to review again next year whether to designate the Financial Supervisory Service as a public institution.
Controversy over the nondisclosure of detailed records of the Financial Supervisory Service governor's business promotion expenses has continued for years. Generally, public institutions disclose business promotion expense records item by item, breaking them down by date of use, amount, and place of use (merchant), but the Financial Supervisory Service kept them undisclosed.
In April last year, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a case filed by the civic group "Center for Freedom of Information and Transparent Society" seeking to overturn the Financial Supervisory Service's disposition of denying information disclosure. In April 2024, the information disclosure center requested that the Financial Supervisory Service disclose detailed records of business promotion expenses used by former Governor Lee Bok-hyun from June 2022 to April 2024. However, the Financial Supervisory Service refused to disclose them, and the information disclosure center filed a lawsuit.
Lee Chan-jin, who took office afterward, also said in October last year, "We will decide whether to disclose based on the outcome of the lawsuit, and I will disclose all of my personal matters." An official at the Financial Supervisory Service said, "Among our internal reform tasks, we viewed the disclosure of business promotion expense details as the most quickly actionable issue and decided to implement it immediately."