Jeong Eun-bo, Financial Supervisory Service Chief, "Financial Firms Must Diligently Manage Potential Risks Themselves"

Jeong Eun-bo 'FSS SPEAKS 2022' Keynote Speech
Director Jeong "Economic and Financial Uncertainty Very High"

On the 29th, at the Millennium Hilton in Jung-gu, Seoul, Jeong Eun-bo, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, is delivering the keynote speech at the 'FSS SPEAKS 2022' event. Photo by Financial Supervisory Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] “Financial companies themselves must meticulously manage potential risks and secure sufficient loss absorption capacity to respond promptly to internal and external shocks.”

On the 29th, at the Millennium Hilton in Jung-gu, Seoul, Jeong Eun-bo, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), stated in his keynote speech at ‘FSS SPEAKS 2022’ that “This year, financial authorities intend to work closely with financial markets to ensure thorough proactive risk management.”

FSS SPEAKS is an event where the FSS shares supervisory and inspection directions with foreign financial companies and listens to management difficulties and suggestions. This event, held face-to-face for the first time in three years due to COVID-19, was attended by about 230 people including Colin Crooks, British Ambassador to Korea, other foreign diplomatic envoys in Korea, and representatives and executives of foreign financial companies.

Governor Jeong warned, “The uncertainty of the global economic and financial environment has become very high,” adding, “Despite the bleak outlook for the real economy, inflation is expanding due to rising raw material prices and global supply chain disruptions, creating an uneasy situation.”

He also expressed concern, saying, “Market anxiety is increasing due to the Ukraine-Russia war, and a sharp interest rate hike in the United States is expected,” and “With concerns about downside risks to the economy, countries are accelerating tightening measures, and the whole world is paying close attention to the global economic situation.”

In response, he explained, “We will strengthen continuous monitoring functions to detect and prevent potential instability factors in the financial market in advance,” and “We will expand communication with the market and implement the self-audit request system to enable more efficient proactive risk management.” The self-audit request system was piloted last month and is scheduled for full implementation starting in the second quarter.

Regarding financial consumer protection, he emphasized, “There is no distinction between foreign and domestic companies,” and “Meticulous efforts must be made to protect consumers throughout the entire lifecycle of financial products, from development to sales and post-management.”

He also mentioned the issue of regulatory fairness between existing large banks and fintech companies. Governor Jeong said, “We will create a broad and level playing field where existing financial companies and new players can compete fairly and grow together,” and “Under the principle of same function, same regulation, we will establish a comprehensive regulatory framework related to financial intermediation that aligns with global consistency.”

Meanwhile, Governor Jeong held a separate meeting with representatives of 13 foreign financial companies. At this meeting, business trends and difficulties and suggestions from financial companies were discussed.

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