"Cracking Down on Illegal Financial Ads on SNS"... Financial Supervisory Service Strengthens Oversight

Financial Supervisory Briefing on Financial Consumer Protection Sector

As financial products sales channels diversify and competition intensifies due to financial digitalization, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has taken measures to respond. It plans to strengthen supervision of social network service (SNS) financial advertisements that cause consumer misunderstandings and to block the distribution of illegal private loans online.

On the 6th, the FSS held the ‘2024 Financial Consumer Protection Sector Financial Supervisory Work Briefing’ attended by about 250 people, including representatives from financial associations and consumer protection officers from financial companies.

In his opening remarks, Kim Mi-young, Director of the Financial Consumer Protection Division, said, “New variables affecting consumer protection continue to increase, such as financial digitalization, diversification of sales channels, and increased market volatility,” and urged, “We ask the financial sector to actively participate in the government-wide efforts to protect consumers from financial crimes.”

Financial Supervisory Service building in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

On this day, the FSS announced plans to establish a fair financial transaction order and induce improvements in financial companies’ consumer protection systems. It will inspect sales practices through ‘mystery shopping’ (a measure where investigators pose as customers to visit financial companies and evaluate product sales procedures) and establish a ‘Fair Finance Promotion Committee’ to improve unfair financial practices.

It will also respond to new types of financial advertisements on SNS. The FSS plans to prepare improvement measures with related agencies against online sales and advertising activities that cause consumer misunderstandings, such as emphasizing specific content in YouTube thumbnails. Financial companies have been instructed to review the impact on consumer protection when developing products, launching services, planning advertisements, and pursuing new business partnerships.

In cooperation with the ‘Illegal Private Loan Government-wide Task Force (TF),’ the FSS will also block the distribution of illegal private loans online. It plans to encourage self-regulation of internet cafes that facilitate illegal loan transactions such as those involving acquaintances or sexual exploitation debt collection and to block illegal accounts. The FSS will provide free support for lawsuits invalidating illegal loan contracts and actively support the activation of the debtor representative system.

Additionally, the FSS stated it will actively work for effective consumer protection through ▲strengthening prevention and response systems against voice phishing crimes ▲responding to insurance fraud that causes insurance premium increases ▲and enhancing financial consumer capabilities through systematic financial education.