Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
KDIC exports Korea’s experience
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The government launched a specialized Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) in 2004 to help emerging countries develop their economic potential using Korea’s experience of rapid economic growth over the past five decades.
Through the capacity building program, Korea offers research findings, recommendations and training activities on specific issues relevant to their interests in other countries.
In conjunction with the government’s program, the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC) has been active in providing the nation’s expertise and experience in the sector to many developing countries.
The state-run agency, headed by President Lee Seung-woo, has provided advanced knowledge in deposit insurance, including fund management and risk surveillance.
The KDIC also offers expertise in restructuring troubled banks. It consulted with Mongolia on the introduction of deposit insurance and it also provided foreign financial authorities including Vietnam with expertise and experience learned during the financial crisis in the late 1990’s.
The KDIC was established in June 1996 to protect depositors’ funds at KDIC-insured financial institutions and maintaining the stability of the financial system.
Its major functions can be classified into five categories ― insurance management, risk surveillance, resolution, recovery, and investigation.
Along with the delivery of knowledge, the KDIC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with eight foreign deposit insurers, including the United States, Japan and Russia, on informational and personal exchanges to cope with crises.
Locally, the KDIC undertakes risk surveillance to prevent financial institutions under deposit insurance from facing insolvency.
It shares information on the institutions with related agencies ― the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Bank of Korea (BOK), Financial Services Commission (FSC) and Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) ― and runs a taskforce for each institution to monitor its financial status.
The KDIC has expanded a joint inspection with the FSC from nine in 2008 to 24 in 2010, and it dispatches inspectors to institutions with poor financial structures.
Social contribution activities
The KDIC’s executives and employees have been active in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in its role as a public institution to build a sound organizational culture. In particular, it is focusing on making efforts to support those with low incomes and the underprivileged.
During the farming and harvest seasons, its employees have lent their support to farmers to strengthen mutual ties between city and rural communities.
It divided all departments into 19 teams, which have conducted volunteer services, including offering free meals to needy neighbors in each quarter along with social organizations.
It also provides financial aid for students from low-income families by giving them 1 million won each every year, while it dispatches employees to teach handicapped children as assistants at a special-education school in Seoul on the third Saturday of each month. In addition, the KDIC has joined a campaign to clean Cheonggye Stream every month. It also collects coins for the underprivileged.