Toss was designated as a financial conglomerate for the first time among big tech financial groups.
The Financial Services Commission held its 13th regular meeting on the 15th and designated eight financial groups that met all the requirements under the Act on the Supervision of Financial Conglomerates—Samsung, Hanwha, Mirae Asset, Kyobo, Hyundai Motor, DB, Daou Kiwoom, and Toss (in order of total asset size)—as financial conglomerates.
The designation requirements are: ▲ at least two of the following businesses—deposit and loan, insurance, and securities/investment ▲ at least one company licensed or registered by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) ▲ total assets of at least 5 trillion won. However, groups are excluded if total assets in noncore sectors are less than 5 trillion won.
Toss is the only corporations newly designated as a financial conglomerate this year. This is the first time a big tech financial group has been designated as a financial conglomerate. As of the end of last year, Toss had total assets of 41.3 trillion won, assets of 33 trillion won in its core business (deposit and loan), and assets of 7.2 trillion won in its noncore business (securities/investment), meeting all the designation requirements for a financial conglomerate.
The financial conglomerate designation has been made annually since it took effect in June 2021 to effectively manage and supervise financial and managerial risks such as risk transfer and concentration at the group level and internal transactions. Once designated as a financial conglomerate, a representative financial company must be selected based on the equity relationships of affiliated financial companies and their asset and capital totals, and this must be reported to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Groups must regularly check and assess group-level risks and establish and comply with internal control and risk management policies and standards. They must disclose important matters necessary to protect financial consumers and report them to the financial authorities. Financial conglomerates must maintain a level of own capital sufficient to secure group-level financial soundness (group capital ratio of at least 100%).
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said, "Through this designation, an autonomous risk management framework in which financial conglomerates recognize and manage group-level risks on their own will take root, while providing an opportunity to gradually strengthen group-level risk management and supervision of big tech financial groups."