Watchdog chief calls for fairness, transparency in CEO selection process

The chief of the country's financial watchdog said Wednesday that bank holding companies need to draw up measures to boost fairness and transparency in selecting chief executives of their affiliates.

In a meeting with the heads of eight holding companies of banks, Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), urged them to redouble their efforts to select chief executives of their affiliates in a fair and transparent manner.

The watchdog has been racing to map out measures to boost the governance structure of financial holding companies that center around fair and transparent selections of chief executives of banks.

Lee also stressed that banks need to enhance their internal control schemes as financial accidents have been on the steady rise.

According to the FSS, a total of 171 billion won ($126 million) worth of financial accidents were reported in the banking sector in the first seven months of the year, sharply up from 69.6 billion won in 2023.