Chairman Kim Byoung Hwan of the Financial Services Commission held a meeting with mutual finance businesses on September 9 as part of his continuous effort to communicate with different financial sectors since taking office in July this year. At the meeting, Chairman Kim pointed out that mutual finance businesses have been mostly focused on seeking an external growth of the industry, while overlooking their important function of providing regional microfinance services. In this regard, Chairman Kim urged the mutual finance industry to enhance their prudential management and strengthen risk management to make sure that mutual finance businesses can find ways to more effectively work on providing regional microfinance services. To this end, Chairman Kim said that it is important to continue to make efforts to promptly resolve the issues surrounding real estate project finance loans and to restore soundness. In addition, considering the significant growth seen in their asset size over the past ten years, Chairman Kim said that it is necessary to bolster their asset management capabilities in terms of the structure and method of asset management to ensure stability.