[1mm Financial Talk] Tug of War Between National Assembly and Authorities Over PF Loan Data

National Assembly Political Affairs Committee
Photo by Yonhap News

Some offices of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee members and financial authorities are engaged in a tug-of-war over statistical data on real estate project financing (PF) loan status. While the Political Affairs Committee insists that related statistics, including provisional figures, should be disclosed more quickly, the financial authorities are delaying the submission of data and adopting a cautious approach.

On June 15, Oh Ki-hyung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, demanded the submission of data during the full meeting of the Political Affairs Committee, addressing Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), saying, "We regularly request real estate PF data (to the National Assembly), and we requested first-quarter data, but we have yet to receive anything." In response, Governor Lee said, "I will look into it." However, nearly two weeks have passed without any submission of the relevant data or any response regarding when it will be provided.

This is not the first time such a situation has occurred. At the full meeting on April 6, the ruling party also raised similar complaints. A verbal dispute broke out between Kim Ju-hyun, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and some ruling party members over the failure to submit fourth-quarter data from last year. Yoon Chang-hyun, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out, "The FSC has the authority to issue management, guidance, and supervision orders to the FSS, but isn’t it neglecting its duties too much?"

Yu Ui-dong, also from the People Power Party, criticized, "Statistical data is a very important point for economic decision-making, so I don’t understand why it is delayed," adding, "This could cause misunderstandings that data is released early when favorable and late when unfavorable." Chairman Kim responded, "This is not an issue to be hidden; accuracy must be verified, so it takes time," and said, "We will find a way to announce it quickly." The fourth-quarter data from last year was submitted to the National Assembly around April 7, three months after the quarter ended.

However, the financial authorities maintain that while they are promptly following up in supervisory areas, more time is needed to publicly disclose statistics. The FSS stated in a written response to the Political Affairs Committee, "Since the end of last year, to improve the consistency of statistics, we have been receiving workplace-level statistics from proxy financial institutions and comparing them with statistics submitted by financial companies, which takes more time than before."

Regarding this, a Political Affairs Committee member’s office official criticized, "It seems they have entered a holding pattern because public opinion worsens whenever the figures are unfavorable." Another official from a Political Affairs Committee member’s office lamented, "We demanded the disclosure of provisional figures if final figures are difficult, but the financial authorities insist on sticking to the original plan."