The Financial Services Commission announced that a revision bill of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers, which contains measures to improve the financial dispute mediation procedures, has been approved by the government during a cabinet meeting held on July 25.

With financial products becoming increasingly diversified and complex in their type and structure, the number of disputes between financial consumers and financial companies has also increased. Due to the increased volume of dispute cases (28,118 in 2018 to 36,508 in 2022, based on the number of registered complaints), the time it takes to process mediations has also increased, causing inconvenience to consumers.

Against this backdrop, the revision aims to enhance the speediness and independence of the financial dispute mediation procedures. First, a fast-track mediation process will be newly introduced, allowing cases to move onto the final stage of “mediation committee” without having to go through the “settlement recommendation” stage. Whether a case gets fast-tracked will be determined depending on the mediation amount in question and the extent of stakeholders involved. Second, additional standards have been introduced regarding the method of designating members of financial dispute mediation committee to enhance the level of independence in the operation of mediation committees and ensure fairness in how committee members are selected. The revision also includes some other improvement measures that have been brought up by FSC’s ombudsman.

The revised measures are scheduled to be publicly announced on August 1 and become effective after three months (November 2) from the day of announcement.

* Please refer to the attached file for details.