The National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee on the 20th adopted a hearing report on Shin Hyun-song, nominee for governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK). Once the National Assembly sends the report to President Lee Jae-myung, Lee is expected to appoint Shin as BOK governor for a four-year term. This eases concerns that the BOK would face its second-ever leadership vacancy.
The committee said it held a full session that day and adopted the hearing report on Shin. It came about a month after President Lee nominated Shin on the 22nd.
Earlier, after holding a confirmation hearing for Shin on the 15th, the committee did not adopt the report. The opposition raised issues over the fact that Shin's daughter, who holds British citizenship, did not file a report on the loss of her Korean nationality and had her Korean passport reissued. The committee also convened a full session on the 17th but did not adopt the report on Shin.
The committee decided to adopt the report on the condition that it include a dissenting opinion from Reform Party lawmaker Cheon Ha-ram, who raised allegations of an illegal reissuance of the passport. The ruling and opposition parties agreed that the position of the head of currency policy could not be left vacant amid a protracted Middle East crisis and a weak domestic economy. Shin was said to have noted that the family had applied at the U.S. Consulate General in New York for the child's renunciation of Korean nationality to resolve the dual citizenship issue.
Meanwhile, Shin, born in 1959, is from Daegu. He holds a doctorate in economics from Oxford and taught at the London School of Economics and Princeton. He served as presidential adviser on international economics to former President Lee Myung-bak. Since 2014, he has worked at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) as chief economist and head of the monetary and economic department.