Eun Sung-soo "Preparing Financial Consumer Protection Act Guidelines... Reflecting Characteristics of Small and Medium Financial Sectors"

Meeting with Representatives of Card, Capital, and Savings Banks

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Eun Sung-soo, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, held a meeting on the 9th with representatives from card companies, capital companies, and savings banks, urging industry cooperation for the smooth implementation of the Financial Consumer Protection Act (FCPA). He also mentioned that guidelines reflecting the characteristics of the small and medium financial sector are being prepared.

According to the Financial Services Commission on the 9th, Chairman Eun held a meeting at 10 a.m. at the Korea Federation of Banks with CEOs of specialized credit finance companies and savings banks to discuss measures for the smooth implementation of the FCPA and major issues. Attendees included the Executive Director of the Credit Finance Association, representatives from Shinhan, Samsung, and Kookmin Card, representatives from Hyundai, Lotte, and Woori Financial Capital, representatives from SBI, Daishin, and Hana Savings Banks, and directors from the National Credit Union Federation of Korea.

At the meeting, Chairman Eun requested active cooperation from the small and medium financial sectors to ensure the smooth establishment of the FCPA, stating, "I understand that the small and medium financial sectors, which mainly handle deposit or loan-type products, face less confusion from the implementation of the FCPA compared to other sectors dealing with investment and insurance products. However, newly regulated entities such as individual credit unions, loan solicitors, and lease/installment solicitors are expected to face significant compliance burdens in the early stages of the law’s enforcement." He added, "I ask the National Credit Union Federation and medium-to-large financial companies to pay special attention to education and explanations to help these sellers smoothly adapt to the new system."

Chairman Eun explained, "Since the end of March, we have been operating a rapid response system for FCPA-related difficulties, and starting next week, the financial authorities and the industry will officially launch the FCPA Implementation Task Force." He also said, "We are preparing guidelines on internal controls and consumer protection standards together with the industry to ensure there are no difficulties in regulatory compliance," adding, "We plan to fully consider the diverse characteristics of the small and medium financial sectors."

Furthermore, he stated that consultations with related ministries will be completed soon to resolve regulatory blind spots in mutual finance sectors such as agricultural, fisheries, forestry cooperatives, and Saemaeul Geumgo.

Meanwhile, during discussions on industry issues, Chairman Eun requested the industry's support and attention to ensure the smooth progress of maturity extensions and soft landing measures for loans to small and medium enterprises and small business owners. He also expressed gratitude for the reflection of the purpose of the statutory maximum interest rate reduction in the standard terms and conditions of the savings bank sector, effective from July. He said, "The government and industry are jointly preparing to launch the ‘Hetsalron Card’ to enable low-credit users to use cards," adding, "Considering that this is a product for the lowest credit users, it will operate with a 100% guarantee ratio, and we plan to actively collect opinions regarding the product details, so we ask the card industry to actively participate."

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