The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) will fully revise its on-site inspection manual and move to strengthen the expertise of inspection trustees to block money laundering at the source.
The FIU on the 17th held the first 2026 council of money laundering prevention inspection trustees with 11 trustee organizations and discussed these measures. The FIU shared the core tasks of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Policy Advisory Committee announced in Feb. and asked for the trustees' cooperation.
This year, the FIU will strengthen its capacity to respond to livelihood crimes and transnational crimes and will reinforce the anti-money laundering framework for virtual assets. It will also enhance financial companies' AML capabilities and improve global consistency. To that end, it will introduce a system to suspend accounts suspected of serious crimes that harm people's livelihoods. It will also strengthen the review and analysis function for suspicious transaction reports. The plan is to elevate the status of the AML reporting officer within financial companies to an executive position to encourage accountable management.
Among the inspection trustees, the Financial Supervisory Service will expand planned and thematic inspections and conduct thematic inspections such as checking AML control systems at overseas branches located in Southeast Asia. It will focus inspections on financial companies with weak management practices, such as those frequently linked to accounts used for fraud.
Mutual finance institutions' central associations, including NongHyup, the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, credit unions, the National Forestry Cooperative Federation, and the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives (KFCC), will review suspicious transactions of money laundering using gift certificates. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will examine venture capital firms' ability to implement the system.
The FIU and inspection trustees agreed to reduce on-site remedial measures and strengthen substantive sanctions, including fines. To that end, they will fully revise and disclose the AML inspection manual. The amendment will include details such as clarifying work procedures, measures to protect the rights and interests of examined entities, and preparing inspection forms.
FIU Director Lee Hyeong-ju said, "Crimes that harm people's livelihoods are becoming more sophisticated amid a rapidly changing financial environment," and emphasized, "It is important to identify in advance the flow of illegal revenue related to this."