[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Lee Bokhyun, the new Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor, announced on the 8th that he would review whether there is room to revisit the Lime and Optimus fund scandals through the system.
On the same day, during a visit to the FSS press room for his inauguration greeting, Lee responded to a question about whether he intends to revisit the Lime and Optimus incidents by saying, "Regarding private equity funds, each individual fund case has been concluded and is understood to have already moved past," but added, "However, I am aware that some parts of society are raising concerns. I will thoroughly check whether there is any possibility to review them through the system."
Some speculate that appointing Lee, a former prosecutor, as the new FSS Governor is related to the reinvestigation of large-scale financial incidents such as the Lime and Optimus fund scandals, which were criticized for insufficient investigation during the Moon Jae-in administration.
Regarding concerns about expertise, Lee said, "There are many experts in various fields within the FSS, and I plan to maintain a cooperative relationship with the Financial Services Commission, so I will listen carefully and reflect their opinions."
On the future direction of inspections, he stated, "Since regulations cannot completely disappear due to the nature of financial businesses, I will consider how to rationalize and make them predictable. At the same time, I intend to approach relationships with supervised institutions from the perspective of service provision and ensure that consumers do not experience inconvenience," adding, "I will further review the inspection system."
As his first priority task, he cited the advancement of financial supervisory services. Lee said, "I empathize with the critical view that we may not have sufficiently kept pace with the private sector's development regarding issues related to the advancement of the financial market," and added, "I will consider how to maintain the advancement of financial supervisory services and regulatory systems without undermining financial market stability, while making them predictable and reasonable."
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