South Korea: Regulator plans to conduct in-depth audits
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Feb 2019
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will revive a comprehensive audit of financial institutions as early as March, according to the financial watchdog.
Under the comprehensive audit, which was shelved in 2015, up to 30 FSS officials look into a firm’s affairs in general for over a month without any limitations. This is different from the current inspection mode where only 10 or fewer officials review a specific issue within a fortnight.
The revival of the comprehensive audit is largely expected following remarks made by FSS governor Yoon Suk-heun who said last July that the detailed audit will better identify failures in corporate structure, internal control, financial health and customer protection, reported The Korea Times.
Sources expect the FSS will first target major insurers, particularly Samsung Life, the nation’s largest life insurer.
But an FSS official said, “Nothing has been decided over which firm we will inspect first.” He said, “The timing and targets have yet to be decided because we have to consider various factors.” A