Financial Supervisory Service governor Choi Soo-hyun will double as a volunteer English interpreter.

The 58-year-old official was recently recruited as a volunteer interpreter by BBB Korea, a corporation which provides interpretation services by telephone 24 hours a day.

BBB Korea posted openings for 431 volunteer interpreters in April, and about 1,300 applied.

In late April, he passed the third and final round of the test, a three-way telephone conversation involving a foreigner and a Korean.

He was inaugurated to head the financial oversight agency in March.

He reportedly acquired English proficiency when he worked at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the current World Bank, for three years as an official dispatched from the Finance Ministry in 1998.

His daughter is also a volunteer interpreter for BBB Korea.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)