The Financial Supervisory Service declared that its top task this year is to reinforce the protection of financial consumers. The regulator is pinning hopes on the coming enhanced protection system to boost consumers’ trust and consequently increase the demands in the financial market.

Amid escalating worries after a massive credit card data leak earlier this year, the regulator on Wednesday held a briefing session on how it plans to bolster supervision of the information security of financial consumers.

The issue is conventionally affiliated with the FSS’ audit section but was separated into an independent session, reflecting the significance of the recent financial information breach and the rising sense of crisis, according to officials.

Also, the FSS invited companies that have set model examples of consumer protection, such as Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and Daegu Bank, and shared their experiences with participants.

“A fundamental way to protect financial consumers is to educate them on how they can defend themselves against financial fraud and assert their rights,” said an official.

For this, the regulator plans to expand the range of its financial security campaigns, especially to social minority groups such as multicultural families, North Korean refugees and the physically disabled.

The FSS consumer call center will offer a comprehensive “one-stop” service by providing a wider range of financial information as well as professional counselors, according to officials.

An appraisal system will be introduced so that the consumers may judge financial service providers on their level of consumer information protection and civil complaints processes.

“In the future, audits and inspections will no longer be just about supervising and assessing the financial companies, but also a way to make sure that the firms properly reflect the consumer feedback,” the FSS official said.

In an aim to encourage peaceful dispute settlements, the regulator is considering banning financial companies from suing consumers, while a small-amount dispute settlement is ongoing between the two parties, officials said.

Up to now, these nonbinding dispute settlement systems have mostly been operated in the insurance sector, but the FSS plans to expand them to other sectors of the financial industry.

“We will make sure that the financial system reflects the consumer demands, and for this, we will reinforce our supervising and auditing function,” said Oh Soon-myoung, chief of the FSS Financial Consumer Protection Bureau.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)