FSS chief vows to make finance 'a stepping stone' for elderly, disabled consumers

Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin said Thursday that "finance should be a stepping stone that supports people's lives, not a stumbling block for anyone."

Lee made the remarks at a forum titled "Listening to Financial Consumers on the Ground," held at the FSS headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, and pledged to "strengthen tailored support so that elderly people, people with disabilities and other financial consumers can exercise their right to self-determination as the rightful subjects of their own financial lives."

Lee said the FSS had "made multifaceted efforts to improve financial access for elderly people, people with disabilities and other financial consumers, and to change unreasonable practices," and outlined recent consumer protection improvements for each group. Representative measures include the introduction of simplified modes in financial apps for elderly users, the expansion of disability-type-specific support infrastructure and the expansion of AI-based real-time consultation services for foreign nationals and multicultural families.

"A system is completed not by those who make it, but by those who use it," Lee added, expressing his commitment to directly hearing the difficulties consumers face in the financial sector and reflecting them in consumer protection work.

The forum brought together representatives of major consumer groups to share views on unreasonable financial practices and ways to address them. Discussion covered three themes: strengthening protections for elderly financial consumers, improving financial access for consumers with disabilities, and enhancing the rights of general financial consumers.

The FSS plans to carefully review the feedback and actively incorporate it into its supervisory and regulatory reform processes. Late last year, the FSS reorganized its structure to make strengthening financial consumer protection its top supervisory priority, as part of broader efforts to embed consumer protection throughout the organization.

An FSS official said the agency "plans to continue creating forums for on-the-ground communication involving ordinary consumers and the financial industry, so that improvements to financial companies' business practices and to the regulatory system can be achieved in a meaningful way."