President Moon Jae-in nominated new heads of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the Blue House announced Thursday.
Koh Seung-beom, a member of the Bank of Korea’s monetary policy board, was tapped as the new chairman of the FSC, the financial regulatory body, replacing Eun Seong-soo.
Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication, said in a statement on Koh’s nomination, “With his extensive knowledge of macroeconomics and experience in economic crisis response, he will be able to address financial issues, such as Covid-19 aid, managing household debt, innovation in the financial industry in the digital era and financial consumer protection, and contribute to economic recovery through close cooperation and communication with relevant agencies.”
Koh passed the civil service exam in 1984 and has spent most of his career dealing with economic and financial policies both at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the FSC.
He has experience in financial stabilization measures, playing a hand in handling the credit card bubble in 2003 and the savings banks’ project financing loans crisis in in 2011.
Koh is a graduate of Seoul National University and earned his doctoral degree in economics from American University.
He became the first board member to serve a second term in the Bank of Korea last year.
“The most important task will be to carry out government and financial policies without any setbacks while striving for economic recovery and overcoming the Covid-19 crisis.” Koh said after his nomination Thursday. “I will prepare for internal and external uncertainties while thoroughly managing economic and financial risk factors such as household debt and asset price fluctuations.”
Eun’s departure came as a surprise as the FSC chairman is guaranteed a three-year term, though other top financial regulators have left the post early in the past.
A Blue House official said that Eun “expressed his desire to resign first,” after serving “without a moment to rest” as head of the FSC since September 2019 and in a series of roles in the past years including president of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, head of Korea Investment Corporation and World Bank executive director.
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