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| Financial Services Commission Chairman Shin Je-yoon speaks during a meeting with the heads of major financial groups and state financing institutions at the Bankers' Club in Seoul, Thursday. From left are Industrial Bank of Korea CEO Kwon Seon-joo, Shin and Financial Supervisory Service Governor Choi Soo-hyun. / Yonhap |
By Na Jeong-ju
Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Shin Je-yoon vowed Thursday to ease regulations for financial firms "drastically."
He said the commission will come up with a package of deregulation measures for the financial market by July, without commenting on the details.
"Innovation and competitiveness are key words in fixing the regulatory framework for financial firms," Shin said during a meeting with the chairmen of six major financial groups and heads of state-run financing institutions. "We won't just reduce the number of regulations. What matters is that the firms should feel the changes."
Some FSC officials said the measures will focus on enhancing profitability of all financial segments — banks, and insurance, brokerage and asset management firms — and spurring their global expansion.
"We will take a zero-based approach to remove all unnecessary regulations and lower the entry barriers for the capital markets, private equity funds, mergers and acquisitions, stock listing, as well as derivatives trading," an FSC official said, asking not to be named. "We will also focus on rooting out unfair and irregular business practices that were evident in the recent consumer data-leakage cases."
The comments came after President Park Geun-hye called for a government-wide deregulation drive, calling regulations a "mass of cancer cells."
"Our economic innovation project cannot succeed without removing regulations. This is to make our economy healthy," Park said during a meeting with senior presidential secretaries, Wednesday. "I believe deregulation will ultimately create more jobs and make this country richer."
Shin said he will strengthen communication with financial firms to reflect their opinions in mapping out policies.
"The roles of Korean financial firms have been largely limited to serving exporters and the manufacturing sector although they have huge growth potential," he said. "The government is now taking steps to nurture the financial industry into one of the next economic growth engines. The industry itself should change as well."
The FSC said Shin arranged the meeting with the financial CEOs to share his ideas on how to enhance the competitiveness of the sector.
Participants included Financial Supervisory Service Governor Choi Soo-hyun and the chairmen of Woori, Shinhan, KB, Hana, NH and KDB groups.
Commenting on the data leaks from financial firms, Shin said the industry is now facing its "worst crisis" since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
"This is not a financial crisis. This is a crisis of trust," Shin said. "The data-theft cases showed the industry still has a long way to go. I want to tell you this one thing: Financial firms cannot exist without public trust."
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