As top posts at financial public institutions that in the past often went to former Financial Services Commission officials are being filled by figures from politics and insiders, a scene is unfolding in which the Financial Supervisory Service is competing for related agency positions.
According to the financial sector on the 13th, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is said to have put in considerable effort so that former FSS Senior Deputy Governor Kim Mi-young would be tapped as the next head of the Korea Credit Information Services. The committee to recommend candidates for the head of the Korea Credit Information Services recently recommended former Deputy Governor Kim as the sole candidate. The post has often been held by former Financial Services Commission (FSC) officials. Incumbent chief Choi Yu-sam served as the FSC Director of Structural Improvement Policy, and his predecessor, Shin Hyun-jun, also served as the FSC Director for Planning and Finance, among other roles.
Conversely, the post of head of the Korea Insurance Development Institute, which was often held by former FSS officials, is said to have been given to an FSC figure. Inside the FSS, some grumbled that the agency "missed the Korea Insurance Development Institute post because it was busy looking after former Deputy Governor Kim."
In the financial sector, there is talk that as the Lee Jae-myung administration has sent fewer former FSC officials to lead related agencies, competition for posts between the FSC and the FSS has intensified. An official at the financial authorities said, "The room for maneuver at the FSC has narrowed, creating a very stifling atmosphere."
Under the FSC are quasi-government institutions such as the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT), Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), and Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF), and other public institutions such as Korea Development Bank (KDB), IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, and the Korea INclusive Finance Agency (KINFA), but none are headed by former FSC officials. Under the Lee Jae-myung administration, the only case of an FSC official being selected is President Lee Yun-su of the Korea Securities Depository. The Korea Securities Depository was de-designated as an other public institution under the FSC in Jan. 2022.
As for the presidency of the KDIC, a post frequently taken by senior FSC officials in the past, President Kim Sung-sik, a bar exam cohort of the president and formerly the president's attorney, was appointed.
Kim Eun-kyung, former FSS head of the Consumer Protection Office (senior deputy governor level), was appointed to lead the KINFA. Since its establishment in 2016, this is the first chief from the financial authorities, and the FSS put its name ahead of the FSC. Kim served as a member of the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning's Economy 1 subcommittee in Jun. last year.
Posts that senior officials from the financial authorities had sometimes taken in the past, such as the chair of KDB and the head of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, were filled by insiders. KDB Chair Park Sang-jin is known to have been a fellow at Chung-Ang University's law school with the president, preparing together for the bar exam and sharing hardships during their college years.