Vice Chairman Kim Soyoung of the Financial Services Commission visited Frankfurt, Germany and Vilnius, Lithuania from October 28 to November 1 in order to seek stronger financial cooperation with the European countries following bilateral summit meetings held in 2023.
Meeting with ECB Supervisory Board Member
On October 29, Vice Chairman Kim met with the European Central Bank (ECB)’s supervisory board member Patrick Montagner to elicit consensus on the scope of cooperation prescribed in the draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) on banking supervision, which is expected to be signed by the end of this year. The agreed upon draft MOU contains provisions detailing cooperation and information exchange on banking supervision between the FSC and the FSS (Financial Supervisory Service) of Korea and the ECB regarding financial companies’ license application, appointment of directors, sanctions, and recovery and resolution plans (RRPs) upon request by the counterparty. This MOU is expected to help improve the crisis response capacity of both parties and enhance banking supervision through RRPs.
After the fine-tuning of the draft MOU, Vice Chairman Kim and Mr. Montagner held talks on policy issues regarding sustainable finance and the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial industry. On sustainable finance, both sides had opportunities to share their policy response and how they are dealing with the issue, for instance through climate risk stress test, etc. With regard to the advent of AI technology and its convergence with financial services, both sides agreed on the importance of international cooperation to build a regulatory framework that can help to maximize opportunities while minimizing risks presented by advance technologies.
Meeting with Korean financial companies operating in Germany
Vice Chairman Kim also held a meeting with a group of Korean financial companies doing business in Germany and had talks on local industry trend, operating condition of each company, and their needs and challenges. At the meeting, Vice Chairman Kim said that the government will continue to actively support overseas expansion of Korean financial companies and work to improve local operating conditions through close communication and cooperation with the German financial authority (BaFin).
MOU signing with Bank of Lithuania
On October 30, Vice Chairman Kim met with Simonas Krėpšta, member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania (BOL), and signed an MOU on financial innovation aimed at promoting bilateral cooperation to facilitate exchange of fintech businesses between the two countries. Speaking about the significance of this MOU, Vice Chairman Kim said that as a fintech hub in the European Union (EU), Lithuania can serve as a crucial partner and a bridge for facilitating Korean fintech companies’ business expansion to the EU.
Korea-Lithuania fintech roundtable
Following the MOU signing event, the FSC and the BOL held a fintech roundtable with a group of Korean financial and fintech companies interested in entering the EU market and the Fintech Center Korea in attendance. During the meeting, both sides had opportunities to share an overview of the fintech industry and key advantages of each country, such as the establishment of highly advanced telecommunications infrastructure and payments network in Korea and the speedy and flexible licensing process in Lithuania. To help propel dynamism in the fintech industry, Vice Chairman Kim said that it is important to have “creative destruction” not only from fintech companies but also from traditional financial institutions, such as banks and specialized credit finance businesses. In this regard, Vice Chairman Kim pledged that the government will provide active support to facilitate an expansion and growth of Korean financial and fintech companies well beyond Asia into the EU market and throughout the world.
Meeting with Vice Finance Minister of Lithuania
On October 30, Vice Chairman Kim visited the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania and held a meeting with Vice Finance Minister Mindaugas Liutvinskas who had previously visited Korea to attend the 2024 Korea Fintech Week in August this year. At the meeting, Vice Chairman Kim expressed a positive view on the progress made in financial cooperation between the two countries following the bilateral summit held last year. In response, Vice Minister Liutvinskas said that he hopes to have more opportunities to share policy directions promoting fintech and AI in the future. At the meeting, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen financial cooperation and support the entry and exchange of financial companies between the two countries.
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