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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] SEOUL, June 2, 2026 — South Korea’s antitrust regulator is developing a new scoring system to evaluate the governance and business practices of large conglomerates, a move that could reshape oversight and introduce incentives tied to corporate transparency and fairness.
According to government sources, the Korea Fair Trade Commission has commissioned a research project titled “Development and Application of Corporate Group Health Indicators,” with a final report expected by late November.
The proposed system aims to assign a comprehensive score to each business group, allowing regulators and market participants to assess ownership structure, governance quality, and management practices at a glance.
Key evaluation criteria are expected to include ownership dispersion, which measures the concentration of shares among controlling shareholders, and the proportion of independent directors on corporate boards, reflecting the board’s ability to effectively oversee management.
Additional factors may include internal transaction ratios—often associated with practices such as intra-group deals and preferential treatment—that could indicate risks of self-dealing by controlling families.
The regulator is expected to design a weighted scoring model, producing results such as “Group A: 90 points” and “Group B: 80 points,” to rank corporate groups based on overall governance health.
The initiative is being led by a newly established data analysis unit within the commission, following a broader organizational restructuring in March.
Officials say the move addresses limitations in the current disclosure system, which provides fragmented information on ownership and governance, making it difficult to evaluate the overall soundness of corporate groups.
The effectiveness of the new system will likely depend on how it is implemented. Market observers expect that high-scoring groups could receive regulatory incentives, while lower-scoring firms may face increased scrutiny over practices such as internal transactions and governance structures.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission previously offered benefits such as reduced fines and exemptions from investigations to companies with strong compliance programs, suggesting a similar approach could be applied under the new framework.
The regulator said the system will help provide more intuitive information to the market and enhance the effectiveness of policies governing large business groups.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
