FSC Chairman Eun Sung-soo met with Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters on September 24 in Seoul and held talks on Korea's response to COVID-19, current trends in the financial industry, such as fintechs and digital transformation, and prospects of the post-pandemic economy. During the talks, Chairman Eun also shared Korea's financial hub policy.

Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo held the 2nd consultative body meeting on digital finance on September 24 and discussed the current status of platform businesses entering the financial sector and their impact on the market as well as ways to improve the personal authentication and identity verification system in financial services. At the meeting, Vice Chairman Sohn talked about the importance of promoting transparency, fairness and accountability for both platform service providers and traditional financial companies.

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Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo presided over the 22nd financial risk assessment meeting via teleconference on September 23 and held discussions on financial market conditions, household loans, soundness of financial institutions and the corporate credit situation. During the meeting, Vice Chairman Sohn stressed the importance of recognizing risks involved in overseas stock investment by retail investors and urged financial institutions to closely follow investor protection measures.

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Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo presided over the 21st financial risk assessment meeting via teleconference on September 15 to discuss issues on emergency support measures and the Korean New Deal fund. At the meeting, Vice Chairman Sohn discussed the need to expand lending support to small merchants through improvements to the second round emergency loan program as well as follow-up measures to draw up concrete plans to promote private sector investments in the K-New Deal fund.
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The FSC launched a public-private joint consultative body on digital finance and held a kick-off meeting on ditigal finance via teleconference on September 10. During the meeting, Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo spoke about the need to (i) continue regulatory reforms to promote innovation in financial services, (ii) build a fair competition environment for market participants, (iii) ensure consumer safty in digital finance, (iv) review risk factors related to financial market stability and (v) evaluate the impact of digital transformation on the society as a whole.

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Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo presided over the 9th task force meeting on improving the personal debt management system on September 9, and discussed key details of the Consumer Credit Bill, which include (i) promoting private sector driven debt adjustment process, (ii) mitigating excessive debt collection burdens and (iii) strengthening debtor protection measures. The government's proposal on Consumer Credit Bill will be announced in September this year.

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Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo presided over the 20th financial risk assessment meeting via teleconference on September 8 to review market conditions and monitor the progress in implementing the COVID-19 financial support. During the meeting, Vice Chairman Sohn urged financial institutions to ensure digital security and seamless operation of key functions in the financial system while implementing social distancing measures. Vice Chairman also pledged that the government will play a more active role in managing financial risks including household debt and credit-based lending.

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FSC Chairman Eun Sung-soo announced the government's plans for the 'Korean New Deal Fund and Korean New Deal Finance' at a press briefing held virtually on September 3. The 'Korean New Deal fund' aims to (i) provide strong funding support for the New Deal projects, (ii) help channel abundant market liquidity to productive sectors and (iii) make profit sharing from K-New Deal investment projects more widely available to the general public.

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Vice Chairman Sohn Byungdoo presided over the 19th financial risk assessment meeting via teleconference on September 1 to review market conditions and monitor the progress in implementing the COVID-19 financial support. During the meeting, Vice Chairman Sohn highlighted the importance of maintaining effective lending support for businesses and households while strictly implementing the heightened social distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Vice Chairman Sohn also touched upon the need to invest in the future and urged financial institutions' active participation in the Korean new deal initiative.
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FSC Chairman Eun Sung-soo met with the heads of major securities companies on August 27 and held talks on the current market situation, temporary ban on stock short sale, improving rules for retail investors and channeling liquidity to the real economy sectors. At the meeting, Chairman Eun discussed the growing importance of retail investors and their role in the stock markets, and stated that the government will look into ways to create an environment where retail investors can have more access to the short sale market.

* Please see press release for details.