Financial Services Commission Strengthens Functions Including Expansion of Overseas Financial Cooperation Council's Scope

Function as Control Tower Supporting Export of Domestic Financial Infrastructure
Introduction of New Projects Including Integrated DB Construction Project

On the 9th, officials were busy moving in the corridor of the Financial Services Commission at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where financial authorities decided to promote a plan to include mortgage loans (Judaemae) in the 'debt refinancing' infrastructure scheduled to be launched in May by the end of the year. Financial authorities explained that they aim to reduce the interest burden on mortgage loans by establishing a debt refinancing platform that allows users to compare financial sector loan interest rates at a glance and switch loans easily. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) will expand and reorganize the scope of work of the Overseas Financial Cooperation Council (OFCC) to strengthen its functions, enabling it to serve as a control tower for supporting the export of domestic financial infrastructure. Additionally, the FSC will support the OFCC in introducing new projects such as the establishment of an integrated database (DB) to assist member institutions.

On the 25th, the FSC announced this plan through the "2024 Plan to Strengthen the Functions of the Overseas Financial Cooperation Council." The OFCC was launched in 2013 to support the overseas expansion of domestic financial institutions and to share experiences in financial development. It is a consultative body composed of public and private financial institutions and financial associations, currently operated by the Korea Institute of Finance.

The FSC, recognizing that exporting financial infrastructure will greatly aid domestic financial companies' future overseas expansion and local network establishment, has devised a plan to strengthen the OFCC’s functions to systematically support overseas expansion and cooperation projects of financial infrastructure-related organizations. The plan centers on expanding and reorganizing the OFCC’s work, which was previously focused mainly on networking, into four main areas. The goal is for the OFCC to provide substantive one-stop services to member institutions as the control tower for supporting financial infrastructure exports.

First, networking projects will be held at least twice a year by sector and region. In addition to forums and seminars previously held domestically and internationally, the FSC plans to expand opportunities for personal networking between member institutions and key overseas markets by grouping the once-a-year local financial cooperation forums by sector and region to hold them more than twice annually, and to strengthen links with other cooperation projects.

As part of strengthening information management projects, an integrated DB will be established, and training programs will be expanded from short-term invitation training to long-term practical training programs. The FSC plans to develop the OFCC into an information-sharing platform among member institutions by building an integrated DB to input and manage overseas expansion know-how and challenges, financial sector ODA project performance and demand, and domestic and international personal networks.

The training program will be expanded into a long-term program providing practical training by financial sector, and post-program management will be enhanced by offering graduates opportunities to participate in various OFCC cooperation projects. Furthermore, as part of research projects, a Visiting Scholar Program will be introduced to invite policy authority practitioners from overseas partner countries to Korea for joint research. Starting with Indonesia in 2024, the program will expand to Vietnam and other countries after securing the budget.

Accordingly, the OFCC will faithfully carry out existing projects according to the reorganized scope of work and actively initiate newly introduced projects. It will hold two local financial cooperation forums (first half in the UK, second half in Vietnam) to broadly provide networking opportunities linked to follow-up projects. Long-term invitation training for practitioner-level officials will be held targeting Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia to diversify the OFCC’s training programs.

Also, considering the demand from member institutions that find individual local surveys difficult, research projects will be conducted to understand the economic and financial trends of ASEAN countries, which are major overseas expansion markets. A pilot joint research project will be carried out with practitioners from Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK). The OFCC will also strengthen its platform functions by designing basic programs necessary for DB construction.

Meanwhile, the OFCC plans to gradually increase personnel and budget necessary for work reorganization and project expansion starting this year. The FSC stated, "Based on this plan, the OFCC’s function as a control tower for exporting financial infrastructure will be strengthened, which is expected to activate the overseas expansion of domestic financial institutions and enhance the capabilities of our financial exports."

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