Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), stated on the 7th, "Incidents in the IT sector can undermine market confidence," and added, "We will build a safer and more reliable digital environment."
Governor Lee made these remarks while attending the '2025 Financial Supervisory Advisory Committee Plenary Meeting' held at the Myeongdong Bankers' Hall in the afternoon. The meeting was organized to gather opinions from financial experts, including advisory members, on major current issues and to explore desirable development and supervisory measures for the financial market and industry.
At the meeting, Governor Lee emphasized the continuous pursuit of financial advancement tasks under a consistent policy direction, along with the stability of the financial system and the restoration of trust in the financial sector. Notably, his remark that "incidents in the IT sector undermine market confidence" drew attention amid recent consecutive trading outages in the domestic stock market, including last week's Kiwoom Securities system failure, which has caused growing dissatisfaction among investors.
The FSS is currently in the process of determining whether to initiate an inspection after verifying the causes and any legal violations related to Kiwoom Securities. Previously, on the 18th of last month, the Korea Exchange halted trading of all KOSPI market stocks for seven minutes during the session, and on the 4th of last month, an error occurred causing delays in order execution inquiries on Mirae Asset Securities' Home Trading System (HTS) and Mobile Trading System (MTS).
On this day, Governor Lee pointed out that U.S.-origin reciprocal tariffs and other factors are contributing to increased volatility in domestic and international financial markets, emphasizing the need for ▲ proactive management of structural risk factors such as household debt and real estate project financing (PF), ▲ fundamental improvement of the financial sector's structure, and ▲ restoration of trust in the financial sector through a zero-tolerance policy toward inadequate internal controls.
He stated, "Volatility in the stock and bond markets is accelerating, domestic demand remains sluggish, and changes in the domestic and international industrial environment continue," adding, "We will strive to maintain the stability of the financial system with greater vigilance than ever before."
Specifically, he explained, "We will continue institutional improvements to protect shareholder value, such as improving initial public offerings (IPO) and establishing a voting rights disclosure system, and maintain a strict stance against various unfair trades and self-serving acts that undermine the credibility of the capital market. At the same time, we will actively support infrastructure for innovative finance to ensure that digital innovation in the financial sector harmonizes with accountability and consumer protection, while not neglecting the establishment of regulatory frameworks."
Governor Lee expressed his commitment to restoring trust in the financial sector by stating, "In a situation where uncertainties in the financial market are intensifying due to sharp stock price fluctuations, we will strengthen supervision and management of internal controls to prevent fundamental trust in the financial sector from being damaged by large-scale mis-selling and financial accidents." He added, "We will spare no support to restore the core functions of the financial sector, including expanding the role of small and medium financial institutions such as savings banks and mutual finance in providing funds to local communities and low-income groups, and consistently advancing insurance reform tasks."
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