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| Financial Services Commission (FSC) / Korea Times file |
By Yi Whan-woo
The National Assembly is expected to receive a bill for approval within this month, as part of accelerated efforts made by the government and the ruling party, to punish commercial bank CEOs if their companies are caught committing financial crimes, according to political and financial sources, Sunday.
Sources said that Yoon Han-hong, a ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker and also a member of the Assembly's National Policy Committee, will draft the aforementioned bill and submit it to parliament.
Its possible enactment will require amendments to the law on the governance structure of financial services companies.
Although the bill will be drafted under Yoon's name, sources said that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) "as a matter of fact, is in charge of outlining the bill."
They noted that Yoon, through the bill, will address the issues discussed by the FSC's special task force on tackling lax internal regulatory controls at commercial banks. The task force was formed in August and has worked on the relevant missions since then.
"Simply put, Rep. Yoon will be partly doing the FSC's job to save time and make passage of the bill faster," a source said. "The bill will be submitted no later than September."
Sources argued that a bill submitted by a fellow lawmaker tends to win endorsement from legislators quicker than the one submitted by the government.
The envisaged bill will come as no CEOs have so far been held responsible for the growing number of financial crimes at banks, including embezzlement and forgery.
This is because the current law, when it comes to self-regulatory control at banks, does not classify the scope of liability in accordance with the chain of command.
The FSS has wanted to specifically put the spotlight on CEOs regarding the issue of accountability.
Correspondingly, the revision bill asks to strengthen the role of the board of directors on internal regulatory controls.
It will also ask to document specific liabilities of CEOs and executives concerning such regulatory controls.
The higher the rank, the greater the responsibility a person will bear, including punishments, according to sources familiar with the matter.
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