Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
FSS may face BAI inspection over DLF case
By Kim Bo-eun
The Financial Supervisory Service headquarters on Yeouido, Seoul
By Kim Bo-eun
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has slapped heavy punishments on chiefs of banks that were responsible for misselling high risk investment options last year, based on inspections of the lenders. Yet the authority faces its own audit soon over a failure to play its role as the supervisory agency in the fiasco over derivative-linked funds (DLF).
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has requested the FSS to submit documents related to punishments imposed for heads of Woori and Hana Bank.
"We will determine whether we will launch a separate audit of the FSS on the matter, based on our review of the documents," a BAI official said Thursday.
According to the official, this would be separate from a regular government agency inspection the BAI is set to begin in March.
The BAI is weighing the necessity of a separate audit, based on a request filed by civic groups in November. The civic groups contend that the FSS was responsible for the disaster last year that caused major losses for DLF investors.
If the BAI does not conduct a special audit, it will likely focus its regular audit on looking into whether the FSS played its role in supervising the banks' internal control systems.
The issue is not only confined to the DLF case, as banks and brokerages also face allegations of misselling investment options managed by the troubled Lime Asset Management that froze withdrawals of funds amounting to 1.7 trillion won.
The FSS appears to have acknowledged responsibility over the cases, taking reorganization efforts last month to improve the function of its consumer protection department.