South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has revealed a plan for restructuring in a bid to foresee market changes and safeguard investors from the challenges that new financial technologies like cryptocurrencies pose. The organizational reshuffle includes a new body that will issue recommendations related to virtual coins as well as a mega-department that will supervise all financial sectors.
“The FSC plans a major organizational reshuffle to better protect financial consumers and proactively respond to financial innovation in the fourth industrial revolution era,” the FSC explained.
FSC supervises other regulators like the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (KIU), and frames policies, which are obligatory for them.
One of the big changes in the planned reshuffle is the creation of a new department for policy-making initiatives in the financial technology (FinTech) industry. Dubbed Financial Innovation Bureau, it will cover digital coins and blockchain technology.
“The new Financial Innovation Bureau will be tasked with policy initiatives for financial innovation – e.g. innovative financial services using fintech or big data and responses to new developments and challenges such as cryptocurrencies,” the regulator said.
The other major change is the mega department, called Financial Consumer Bureau, that will undertake the overall responsibility for the financial consumer protection, currently scattered around sector-specific bureaus, the FSC explained. The Financial Consumer Bureau will have several divisions, including Fair Market, Asset Management and Consumer Finance.
The existing Banking and Insurance Bureau, which has authority over bank transaction rules, will be reorganized into Financial Industry Bureau.
Last week, Korea enforced, under the revision of FCS, new anti-money laundering bank rules on cryptocurrency settlement. Banks and other financial institutions are now obliged to expand due diligence procedures for cryptocurrency exchanges to their non-client accounts, to share information about overseas digital trading platforms with the FSC, and to halt immediately suspicious cryptocurrency transactions.
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