South Korea's financial watchdog vowed Monday to keep closer tabs on financial institutions' management of foreign currency liquidity and real estate lending this year in a move to better respond to potential risks amid growing market uncertainties.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) made the plan for the new year amid major countries' monetary tightening to rein in inflation pressure, the prolonged pandemic and concerns over the instability of the Chinese property market.

According to the plan, the FSS decided to enhance the monitoring of the non-banking sector's management of foreign currency liquidity and to devise an advanced risk evaluation system.

The watchdog also plans to expand the application of its system of overseeing companies' exposure to real estate financing.

Currently, only brokerage firms, asset managers and trust companies are subject to the supervision.

In a move to tame growing private loans, the FSS vowed to integrate the management of household and individual business owners' lending this year, while seeking to reduce small merchants' burden of repaying their debt in the post-pandemic era.

"We will closely monitor the market to learn risk factors on a real-time basis and share them with related institutions immediately to activate a joint response system if needed," the FSS said in a release.

"We will also seek measures to better protect consumers by strengthening responses to any financial irregularities and boosting transparency in the market." (Yonhap)