President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday chided the nation’s top financial watchdog for its failure to reform itself despite the 1997-98 financial crisis and to properly supervise mutual savings banks, eight of which had their operation suspended so far this year.

Having championed efforts to seek a “fair society” through the second half of his term, Lee slammed the Financial Supervisory Service for not working hard enough to prevent financial irregularities of the kind that are “only seen in developing countries.”

He told FSS officials during a surprise visit there Wednesday morning that high-paid bureaucrats should work harder, rather than looking for high-profile positions to take up after retirement, if they care about their public image.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)