SEOUL: Although the Lee Jae Myung administration has appointed new heads of South Korea’s top financial regulators, it has yet to finalise its long-anticipated plan to reorganise these institutions.
On Wednesday, the presidential office nominated former first vice-finance minister Lee Eog-weon to lead the Financial Services Commission (FSC), filling a post that has been vacant since chairman Kim Byoung-hwan offered to resign in May.
When asked why the presidential office appointed a new FSC chairman despite the ongoing debate over its restructuring, presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said that “all possibilities remain open.”
He explained that since the overhaul plan has not been finalised and the FSC is still functioning, filling the leadership post was a natural step.
Later in the day, the FSC held a meeting and decided to recommend Lee Chan-jin, who was a member of the state affairs planning committee, as the new governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), another key financial regulator.
The FSC chairman has the right to recommend the FSS governor, and the president later finalises the appointment without an audit.
The position has remained vacant for the past two months since former FSS governor Lee Bok-hyun’s term ended in June.
The nominations come amid an uncertain outlook for the reorganisation of the financial oversight bodies. At Wednesday’s public briefing, the state affairs planning committee did not unveil its reorganisation plan.
It was widely expected that the FSC’s policy functions would be transferred to the Economy and Finance Ministry, while its supervisory role would be merged with the FSS – a move that would elevate the agency to a commission. Under this plan, the FSC would effectively be dismantled.
President Lee, however, has been publicly praising the FSC on multiple occasions.
Last month, Kwon Dae-young, the former secretary general of the FSC who was lauded by Lee for overseeing new mortgage lending restrictions that were imposed on June 27, was even appointed FSC vice-chair, fuelling further speculation about the agency’s future.
The string of nominations adds weight to the view that the expected overhaul of the financial regulators could go in a different direction. — The Korea Herald/ANN
