National Pension Class Action Lead Committee Unification Agenda Deferred... Separate TF to Be Formed

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] The government's plan to unify the authority for representative lawsuits against domestic companies by transferring it to the National Pension Service (NPS) Stewardship Responsibility Committee has been put on hold. However, a task force (TF)-level subcommittee related to the unification of representative lawsuits will be formed to continue further discussions.

The NPS Fund Management Committee, the highest decision-making body of the National Pension Service, discussed the 'Amendment to the Guidelines on Stewardship Responsibility Activities' on the 25th at The Plaza Hotel in Sogong-ro, Seoul, and ultimately decided to postpone the resolution of the agenda.

The 'Amendment to the Guidelines on Stewardship Responsibility Activities' proposed to assign the NPS Stewardship Committee the authority for shareholder proposals on major management issues and the authority for representative lawsuits against management.

Currently, shareholder proposals are handled by the Fund Management Committee, representative lawsuits by the Fund Management Headquarters, and only some parts requiring expertise are entrusted to the Stewardship Committee. The plan was to transfer all these authorities to the Stewardship Committee to unify them. The Stewardship Committee was established in 2018 when the National Pension Service introduced the Stewardship Code (guidelines for exercising voting rights).

An attendee of the Fund Management Committee said, "Regarding the NPS representative lawsuits, a separate subcommittee will be formed to conduct additional discussions," and added, "In addition, apart from the formation of the subcommittee, it was mentioned that the current procedures for representative lawsuits should continue without interruption according to existing regulations."

At the meeting, key vice ministers from major government ministries, including Lee Ok-won, 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, who is an ex officio member of the NPS Fund Committee, Park Jin-gyu, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Park Hwa-jin, Vice Minister of Employment and Labor, and Kim Jong-hoon, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, all did not attend and instead sent first-level directors as their representatives.

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