Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin attended an investor relations (IR) session in London and met with local financial regulators. Lee stressed that he would create an environment where investors can confidently invest in Korea's capital market and corporations.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 8th co-hosted an investor relations (IR) event in London with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and four financial companies — Shinhan Financial Group, Woori Financial Group, Korea Investment & Securities Co., and NH Investment & Securities — targeting senior executives at global financial firms. A total of 22 firms attended, including seven global investment banks (IBs) and 15 asset managers.
Through opening remarks, Lee said he would create an environment where investors can confidently invest in Korea's capital market and corporations. Financial authorities will strictly respond to market-disrupting acts to build a market environment investors can trust, and will induce voluntary efforts by undervalued corporations to enhance their value.
He also emphasized improving funding conditions for new-growth and innovative corporations to foster future growth engines. He said authorities will refine entry and delisting criteria for the KOSDAQ market and proceed with market segmentation to boost dynamism and competitiveness, while activating venture capital supply by large IBs and improving capital regulations for financial companies to channel funds into productive institutional sectors.
He also outlined plans to improve conditions for foreign investment by upgrading capital market and foreign exchange market infrastructure. By shortening settlement cycles, extending trading hours, and building infrastructure for security token offerings (STOs), authorities aim to remove constraints on investors, while promoting the internationalization of the won to build infrastructure that allows foreigners to trade the won without time or location limits. He said this would help create an environment for more ample funds to flow into the Korean market.
Before the London IR, Lee held back-to-back meetings with top officials at U.K. financial regulatory bodies. On the 7th, Lee met Sarah Pritchard, deputy chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to discuss the two countries' financial consumer protection systems and supervisory directions. He emphasized that the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is concentrating supervisory capacity across the organization to build a preventive consumer protection system.
Lee explained that Korea is pushing to introduce a fund-type defined contribution pension system and that, after introduction, the contract-type and fund-type systems will coexist as in the U.K. He said the supervisory framework is being designed to ensure consistency in performance evaluation and subscriber protection levels between the contract-type system and the fund-type system. The two sides agreed to continue sharing supervisory experience on pension performance evaluation and consumer protection systems.
On the 8th, he met Catherine Braddick, head of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), to discuss bank and insurance prudential regulation, digital operational risk, and supervisory approaches to virtual assets and stablecoins. The two sides shared views on principles to streamline regulation for a balance between economic growth and the soundness of financial companies, directions for third-party oversight and inspections such as cloud and SaaS, and the potential for expanding financial companies' participation in the digital asset market.
On the 9th, he met Richard Moriarty, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), to discuss strengthening audit inspections to combat accounting fraud and bolster confidence in the capital market. Lee said a dedicated department and staff are being expanded to shorten the review and inspection cycle for listed companies, and that the introduction of digital inspections is underway. He also identified through the FRC the types and criteria of accounting fraud cases referred to the FCA, which has account-tracing authority, and how such information is used during accounting reviews and inspections.