Delayed Successor Appointments for Insurance-Related Organization Heads... Is the New Administration Seeking Aligned Personnel?

President of Korea Insurance Development Institute's Term Ends in November,
President of Korea Insurance Research Institute's Term Ends in December
Nomination Committees Not Yet Formed... Awaiting Decisions from Financial Authorities
Concerns Ove

The terms of the heads of insurance-related organizations such as the Korea Insurance Development Institute and the Korea Insurance Research Institute are nearing their end, but the selection of their successors remains unclear. Some speculate that the delay in the process may be due to efforts to appoint individuals aligned with the new administration's policies.

According to the financial industry on October 22, Heo Chang-eon, President of the Korea Insurance Development Institute, will complete his three-year term next month. Typically, a committee to recommend candidates for the presidency is formed two months prior to the end of the term, followed by document screening and interviews, and then the president is appointed through a general meeting. However, the recommendation committee has not even been formed yet. A representative from the Korea Insurance Development Institute stated, "At this point, there are no plans to form the recommendation committee."

Given the restructuring of economic and financial ministries this year and the resulting turbulence at the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, it appears that the process of appointing the next president of the Korea Insurance Development Institute is being delayed. As a public institution under the Financial Services Commission responsible for managing insurance premium rates and statistics, the Korea Insurance Development Institute is inevitably influenced by the financial authorities regarding major appointments. Currently, all executives at the director level and above at the Financial Services Commission, as well as deputy governors and above at the Financial Supervisory Service, have submitted their resignations en masse. The decision on whether to accept these resignations will be made next month, and only after a large-scale personnel reshuffle will the selection of the new head of the Korea Insurance Development Institute become clear.

However, some believe that the next president of the Korea Insurance Development Institute has already been decided. At present, Seol In-bae, former Deputy Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, is considered the most likely candidate. Seol, who graduated from Jeonju High School and Yonsei University's Business Administration Department, has extensive experience in insurance at the Financial Supervisory Service. Out of the 13 previous presidents of the Korea Insurance Development Institute, 11 came from government agencies or the Financial Supervisory Service. Only Park Sung-wook, the fifth president, and Kang Ho, the twelfth president, were from non-government backgrounds.

The Korea Insurance Research Institute is also scheduled to change its head at the end of the year, but the process of selecting a successor is adrift. Ahn Cheol-kyung, who became the fifth president of the Korea Insurance Research Institute in April 2019, was reappointed in 2022. He was the first internal candidate and the first to be reappointed in the institute's history. Most previous presidents of the Korea Insurance Research Institute were from academia, except for Kang Ho, the third president, and Ahn, the fifth and sixth president, who were not professors.

Ahn's term is set to end in December, but it appears that the recommendation committee process has not yet begun. Even in 2022, when Ahn was reappointed, the selection of the next president was delayed by nine months. At the time, there was widespread speculation that the new administration's influence played a role in the delay.

Recently, the abrupt suspension of the candidate recommendation process for the next president of the Korea Accounting Standards Board also reflected the will of the financial authorities. During the Financial Supervisory Service's audit by the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee the previous day, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Namgeun criticized, "It has been confirmed that the Financial Services Commission ordered the suspension of the recommendation process for the new president of the Accounting Standards Board," adding, "There are suspicions that the aim is to install a parachute appointment from the bureaucracy." In response, Lee Chanjin, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, replied, "Last night, I was notified that the recommendation committee process would resume. The Financial Supervisory Service will do its best to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings in the personnel process."

Meanwhile, the process of selecting the next chairman of the Credit Finance Association is also stalled. Although the three-year term of the current chairman, Jung Wankyu, ended earlier this month, no successor has been named, so Jung is continuing in an acting capacity. The Credit Finance Association is also waiting for personnel decisions from the financial authorities.