Yoon Seok-heon: "2021, the First Year of Financial Consumer Protection... Focus on Restoring Trust"

'2021 Financial Sector New Year's Meeting' New Year's Address

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Yoon Seok-heon, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, stated on the 5th that 2021 should be regarded as the "first year of financial consumer protection" and that efforts must be made to restore trust.

In his New Year's address at the '2021 Pan-Financial New Year's Meeting' announced that day, Governor Yoon said, "With the full enforcement of the Financial Consumer Protection Act starting this March, 2021 will firmly establish itself as the 'first year of financial consumer protection.' From now on, financial consumer protection must be treated as one of the important management goals from the perspective of financial companies."

He added, "Going forward, the financial sector must take the lead in creating a sound market environment where financial consumers can trust and transact," and urged, "Learning from the mistakes of the private equity fund incident, which was the impetus for the enactment of the Financial Consumer Protection Act, please make relentless efforts this year to restore trust in finance."

He also noted that "due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, socioeconomically vulnerable groups are suffering greater damage, making the demand for finance's social contribution more urgent than ever. However, it is expected that uncertainties in domestic and international economic conditions and the financial environment will be difficult to resolve for a considerable period, and thorough preparation by the financial sector is required."

Governor Yoon emphasized, "Specifically, the accumulation of household debt, the increase in non-performing companies due to economic recession, and the worsening difficulties of vulnerable groups such as self-employed individuals will continue to act as burdens on our economy," and stated, "The entire financial sector must enhance loss absorption capacity to increase resilience in times of crisis, while also ensuring thorough internal control and risk management."

Furthermore, he said, "With the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the digitalization of finance is progressing faster than expected, leading to the emergence of various innovative financial services," and added, "However, we must always remember that the true value of innovative finance does not come from the ingenuity of profit-making methods but from what new benefits it provides to financial consumers."

Meanwhile, the 2021 Pan-Financial New Year's Meeting, which was scheduled to be held that day, was canceled in active compliance with the government's strengthened quarantine guidelines due to the spread of COVID-19, and only the New Year's address and words of encouragement were shared.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.