Financial Supervisory Service(FSS) Governor Choe Heung-sik has apologized over suspicions that the regulator was involved in a recruitment scandal.
 
Choe issued the apology on Tuesday during the National Assembly’s inspection of the financial agency, saying that an incident that had damaged the trust toward financial authorities had recently occurred.
 
Last month, an inspection by the Board of Audit and Inspection(BAI) uncovered suspicions that FSS officials selected unqualified people in the process of recruiting new employees in 2016 by changing the recruitment standard and expanding the hiring numbers.
 
Choe said the agency is pursuing reform in personnel, organization structure, monitoring and consumer rights in a bid to win back the people and market’s trust as well as to boost the agency’s fundamental role and function.
 
On household debt, Choe said that the growth of such debt is outdoing growth in income, leading to a contraction in consumption which could weigh on macroeconomic factors.  
 
The regulator is set to unveil ways to tackle household debt later this month.