The financial authorities are said to be discussing ways to strengthen advance notice for ad hoc inspections by the Financial Supervisory Service. Proposals under discussion include granting an advance-notice period to the financial companies subject to inspection and explaining the purpose of the inspection in concrete terms. The Financial Services Commission is also reportedly reviewing a plan to receive and review the advance-notice details to determine whether the inspection purpose is appropriate. The Financial Supervisory Service announced early this year that it would push to improve inspection operations across the board, and this appears to be a follow-up step.
According to the financial authorities on the 2nd, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) are discussing improvements to the ad hoc inspection system at meetings of the "financial administration reform task force (TF)," which has been under way since early this year. The financial administration reform TF was formed to revamp administrative and supervisory work with the aim of strengthening the public interest and transparency of financial consumer protection functions.
The TF is reviewing a plan for the FSS to give advance notice to financial companies when conducting ad hoc inspections unless the matter is urgent, and to clearly explain the purpose of the ad hoc inspection. Under current law, when carrying out an ad hoc inspection, advance notice must be given to financial companies one week in advance, but notice may be omitted if it is determined that achieving the inspection's purpose would be difficult due to destruction of materials or the like. The FSS already notifies financial companies of the purpose of an ad hoc inspection, but it provides only broad guidance such as "financial consumer protection," without sharing specific details.
There are also discussions about having the FSC receive and share the advance-notice content. The aim is to examine whether an ad hoc inspection is truly necessary and whether it places an excessive burden on financial companies. As lawsuits challenging sanctions based on FSS inspection findings are increasing, the purpose is also to assess the validity of the inspections. At present, unless a case requires specific legal interpretation or has a significant impact on the industry, the FSS does not share with the FSC whether it will proceed with an ad hoc inspection.
FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin announced the "2026 FSS work plan" in Feb., saying that to improve inspection procedures, the agency would move to restrict interim announcements of inspection results and extend the advance-notice period for ad hoc inspections. An FSC official said, "Within bounds that do not undermine the FSS's purpose for ad hoc inspections, we are continuing discussions in a direction that strengthens cooperation with the FSC."