Implementation of Financial Consumer Protection Performance Evaluation... "On-site Inspection in Late August"

Among 74 Financial Companies, 26 Are Subject to Evaluation This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] This year, 26 financial companies will undergo a financial consumer protection performance evaluation. A document inspection is scheduled for the end of July, followed by an on-site inspection in late August.

On the 5th, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced that it will introduce an evaluation cycle system for the financial consumer protection performance evaluation and conduct evaluations starting in the second half of this year. In accordance with the Financial Consumer Protection Act, 74 companies across 7 financial sectors were designated as evaluation targets, considering quantitative factors such as business scale, number of complaints, asset size, and non-quantitative factors such as past performance evaluation results.

The 74 companies subject to evaluation are divided into three groups based on complaint volume, business scale, and asset proportion. The performance evaluation is conducted annually for one group, and the evaluation cycle for each company is basically three years. Among the three groups, Group 1 (26 companies) will be evaluated this year, while Group 2 (24 companies) and Group 3 (24 companies) will be evaluated in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The FSS, considering that the obligation to establish internal control standards and consumer protection standards, which are targets of the performance evaluation under the Financial Consumer Protection Act, has been deferred until September 25, plans to include evaluation items stipulated in the enforcement rules this year but will apply the inspection items from the current consumer protection model regulations to reduce the workload on financial companies.

The evaluation indicators consist of two quantitative indicators: ▲matters related to the prevention of complaints in advance ▲efforts to handle complaints and matters related to lawsuits against financial consumers; and five non-quantitative indicators: ▲matters related to organizations dedicated to financial consumer protection ▲establishment and operation of consumer protection systems during financial product development ▲establishment and operation of consumer protection systems during financial product sales ▲complaint management systems and disclosure of consumer information ▲other consumer protection-related matters.

To enhance the efficiency and substance of the performance evaluation, both document inspections and on-site inspections will be conducted. An FSS official stated, "Considering various circumstances such as COVID-19, document inspections will be conducted from the end of July, and on-site inspections will be conducted from late August as much as possible. Financial companies belonging to groups not subject to the performance evaluation in the relevant year will be able to self-assess their consumer protection systems through voluntary diagnosis, which will help them prepare for future performance evaluations."

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