Chin Dong-soo is the chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) whose main purpose is supervising the financial services companies and financial markets to promote a sound credit system and ensure fair business practices.
Chin, 61, who passed the higher civil service examination in 1975, started his professional career in the financial arena two years later at the Ministry of Finance.
During his long spell in the sector, he has built his legacy as a career bureaucrat, assuming a variety of key posts including standing commissioner at the Securities and Futures Commission and the defunct Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), director general of the Information Planning Office at the Postal Banking and Insurance Bureau and director of the Industrial Finance Division at the ministry.
He made efforts to strengthen the transparency of the nation’s financial system.
Chin contributed to introducing the Real-Name Financial Transaction System, serving as director of the Real-Name Financial Transaction System Task Force in 1989.
In addition, during the Asian Financial Crisis, which crippled local banks, he was actively involved in the nation’s financial restructuring process as director general of the Financial Restructuring Task Force in 1998.
Chin, a native of Gochang, North Jeolla Province, was named alternate executive director at the World Bank from 2001 to 2004 and he also served as deputy minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Economy in 2004 before becoming the commissioner of the Public Procurement Service in 2005.
Chin’s rich experience and extensive knowledge in trade financing led him to become the chairman of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) in 2008.
In 2009, he was appointed to the highest position at the nation’s financial regulator.
Chin has a bachelor’s degree from the College of Law at Seoul National University and a Master’s in economics from Boston University.