"Illegal and Unfair Livelihood Financial Crimes Beware"…Financial Authorities to Inspect and Crack Down Until June

Focused Operation of Trend Monitoring Team... Real-time Surveillance and Response to Unfair Trade Trends
Expansion of Punishment Targets for Fraudulent Fundraising Including Institutional Impersonation and Guaranteed Returns
Strengthened Free Support for Sending Voice Phishing Warning Messages and Returning Interest Exceeding the Maximum Rate

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The Financial Services Commission (FSC) plans to strengthen immediate enforcement across all stages of 'prevention and blocking - crackdown and punishment - victim relief' of financial crimes affecting people's livelihoods, and will also swiftly promote institutional improvements.

To this end, a 'Trend Monitoring Team' will be intensively operated until June. They will monitor and respond to unfair trading trends in real time.

Comprehensive and undercover inspections will be expanded on unregistered investment advisory businesses (such as one-on-one consultations) and discretionary investment management businesses (copy trading), and any illegal activities will be promptly referred for investigation.

In particular, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will form a dedicated investigation team focused solely on monitoring unfair trading related to theme stocks and the like, and will immediately investigate upon receiving reports or tips.

The FSC stated that since proving unfair trading is not easy, when violations are detected, they will impose severe sanctions at a level that serves as a stern warning to ensure offenders "never set foot in the market again."

Additionally, the scope of punishment will be expanded to include impersonation of regulated financial products by unqualified persons and guaranteeing returns through financial product investments. Punishment will be enforced even if no contract is signed, based solely on display or advertisement.

Furthermore, to prevent people from falling victim unknowingly, the voice phishing inquiry system will be strengthened, and consumer alerts and disaster messages will be actively utilized upon the emergence of new phishing methods. To prevent and respond to new methods (such as phone hijacking), an information-sharing system encompassing public, telecommunications, security, and financial sectors will be fully launched.

An FSC official said, "From the 29th, joint and undercover inspections and focused investigations on unfair trading, as well as large-scale crackdowns (in cooperation with investigative authorities), will be immediately implemented," adding, "We also plan to actively support the passage of related legislative bills currently under review in the National Assembly to ensure institutional improvement measures can be implemented promptly."

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