FSC head demands innovation in FSC

Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Lee Keun-Young called for innovation in the organization, producing much tension among staff. Related personnel from the FSC stated that Chairman Lee had felt rather victimized by the FSC during his tenure as the president of Korea Trust Investment and Korea Development Bank.

Spokesperson Kim Young-Jae of the FSC revealed on August 16 that newly appointed commissioner Lee emphasized the need for the FSC to be reborn as a market-friendly and consumer-oriented institution at the first management meeting of the FSC since his inauguration. At the meeting, Chairman Lee is known to have criticized the FSC¡¯s rigidity among changes in the financial institutions.

Financial Supervisory Service and the FSC have begun working on three issues, namely updating the audit system to match the system of advanced nations, beginning consumer-oriented supervisory work and initiating internal innovation by forming task force teams on a regular basis, as instructed by the new commissioner.

Chairman Lee¡¯s stern will to innovate the FSC comes from his negative experiences with the FSC during his tenure as the president of the Korea Investment Trust and Korea Development Bank. He is known to have been constantly harassed, to the point of exhaustion, with FSC audits. As the president of Korea Investment Trust, he lost face when he was ordered to write a confirmation memorandum by the former FSC in regards to the crisis associated with guarantee memorandums provided by the trust investment companies for the yield on funds invested mainly on stocks. He had refused to write the memorandum but gave in when the former FSC sent him a warning notice.

Choi Young-Hae moneychoi@donga.com