Yoon Jong-won: "Discovery Fund Loss Compensation Through FSC Dispute Resolution Process"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Yoon Jong-won, President of Industrial Bank of Korea, expressed his intention to proceed with loss compensation through the Financial Supervisory Service's Dispute Mediation Committee procedure regarding the Discovery Fund incident.

On the 18th, President Yoon responded this way in a written press conference concerning the Discovery Countermeasure Committee's proposal to compensate investor losses through 'private settlement.' Private settlement refers to a method where financial companies and victims autonomously negotiate and decide the compensation level.

Following meetings with Discovery Fund customers last year, Industrial Bank of Korea became the first in the banking sector to prepay 50% of the investment principal to alleviate customer inconvenience caused by deferred payments.

President Yoon explained, "I understand that whether private settlement constitutes breach of trust depends on its content," adding, "According to Supreme Court precedents, for private settlement not to be considered a breach of trust in business, the ‘principle of self-responsibility’ stipulated in financial investment-related laws must be observed. To conduct private settlement based on the principle of self-responsibility, securing objectivity regarding the scope of responsibility between parties is important."

He continued, "I believe it is a reasonable approach for loss compensation to proceed through the Financial Supervisory Service's Dispute Mediation Committee procedure, which ensures objectivity," and said, "We plan to sincerely participate in the Dispute Mediation Committee going forward and make efforts to minimize customer damage."

President Yoon emphasized that Industrial Bank of Korea has also established measures to prevent recurrence of the Discovery Fund incident.

He stated, "To protect financial consumers and prevent recurrence of incidents, we separated and made independent the Financial Consumer Protection Group, established a customer-centered asset management control tower, reorganized the organization, and strengthened internal control procedures," adding, "To block the possibility of incomplete sales, we improved the entire process of product selection, sales, and post-management. We strengthened happy calls during financial product sales, and the Consumer Protection Inspection Team is continuously checking new documents and recorded contents to ensure sales procedures are handled according to regulations." Furthermore, he announced plans to introduce a voice bot recording system early next month.

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