Financial Supervisory Service, 74 out of 75 Directors Replaced... Organizational Restructuring and Department Head Appointments

Organizational Restructuring and Department Head Appointments by the Financial Supervisory Service

Establishment of Digital IT Division and Financial Consumer Protection Bureau

Reassignment of 74 out of 75 Department Heads Based on Performance

The Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 10th that it has carried out an organizational restructuring, including the establishment of a Digital IT Division and a Financial Consumer Protection Bureau dedicated to loan and debt collection businesses. Additionally, a large-scale personnel reshuffle was conducted, reassigning 74 out of 75 department heads in the headquarters and support departments.

The Financial Supervisory Service stated, "We have undertaken this organizational restructuring to systematically respond to the rapidly changing digital and IT financial innovations, strengthen consumer protection capabilities for financial minorities such as the underprivileged and vulnerable groups, and reflect recent changes in supervisory demand."

To enhance the ability to respond swiftly and consistently to digital and IT financial innovations, a 'Digital IT Division' was established, and its head was elevated to the position of Deputy Governor. The dedicated organization for electronic financial businesses such as PG and prepaid businesses has been significantly expanded from the existing 2 teams with 14 members to 2 departments (Electronic Financial Supervision Bureau and Electronic Financial Inspection Bureau), 7 teams, and approximately 40 members.

The organization for financial consumer protection has also been strengthened to protect financial minorities.

A Financial Consumer Protection Bureau was established to oversee the supervision and inspection of loan and debt collection businesses. With the Personal Debtor Protection Act enacted last October, the supervision and inspection of loan and debt collection businesses, which were previously dispersed across the Civil Rights Infringement Response Bureau and the Digital Innovation Bureau, will be strengthened, and illegal activities will be strictly dealt with.

Additionally, the response team for illegal private finance will be expanded. A team dedicated to illegal private finance victim relief will be added to the existing 1st and 2nd teams of the Civil Rights Infringement Response Bureau, operating as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd teams. This will actively promote system improvements and measures for the prevention of illegal private finance victimization and investigation linkage, along with victim relief.

To prevent financial consumer damage such as the 'Hong Kong ELS (Equity-Linked Securities)' incident, the current Product Review and Sales Analysis Bureau will be reorganized into the Financial Consumer Protection Investigation Bureau, which will be responsible for inspecting the sales practices of financial products and handling related complaints and disputes.

The Insurance Risk Management Bureau will be reorganized into the Insurance Actuarial Product Supervision Bureau. The insurance product system, terms review, and audit tasks currently performed by multiple departments will be unified under the Insurance Actuarial Product Supervision Bureau. As the competition for the development and sale of unreasonable insurance products to increase the Contractual Service Margin (CSM) during the IFRS17 implementation process is intensifying, inspections of the sales process will be conducted alongside audits and corrective actions upon detection of insurance products.

Furthermore, to establish order in the operations of Corporate Insurance Agencies (GA), an additional inspection team will be established within the Insurance Inspection Bureau 3, and the investigation team of the Capital Market Special Judicial Police Bureau will be expanded from the existing 2 teams to 3 teams. The Pension Supervision Office, currently under the Civil Finance Division, will move to the Financial Investment Division to encourage healthy competition and improve service quality among operators.

Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Service conducted a large-scale personnel reshuffle, reassigning 74 out of 75 department heads in the headquarters and support departments based on work execution power, expertise, and performance to support this organizational restructuring and achieve early results.

In this personnel reshuffle, except for Lee Jin, the Director of the Financial Market Stability Bureau, all were reassigned. Additionally, more than half of the department heads in the headquarters, 36 in total, were selected as new promotions.

By rank, the main department heads were significantly lowered from the existing 1st cohort of public recruitment to the 1st to 4th cohorts of public recruitment and career employees, and department heads in the headquarters were produced up to the 5th cohort of public recruitment. Six senior team leaders with excellent performance at the 3rd grade were boldly selected as department heads in the headquarters.

By age, department heads born between 1972 and 1975 were the mainstay, with department heads in the headquarters being produced up to those born in 1977, accelerating generational change within the organization.

In the Financial IT Division, a data expert who has gone through the Economic Research Institute and Credit Rating Agency was appointed as the executive in charge, and Wi Chung-gi, a senior-level Digital Finance General Bureau Director with both experience and drive in financial IT work, was appointed as the main department head to support this.

To strengthen consumer protection and eradicate financial crimes that infringe on civil rights, excellent resources were intensively deployed in the Financial Consumer Protection Bureau. In particular, the youngest (born in 1977) department head with extensive experience in dispute resolution, business conduct supervision, and civil rights infringement response was boldly selected for the Dispute Resolution Bureau 3.

Additionally, the secretarial work, which has been handled by the Chief Secretary, will now be operated by the Secretary Team Leader, and for the first time since the establishment of the Financial Supervisory Service, a female Secretary Team Leader was boldly appointed.

No Jeong-dong, Hankyung.com Reporter dong2@hankyung.com