[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has announced plans to begin regular inspections of big tech companies, such as Naver, Kakao, and Toss, starting this year. This decision comes in response to the growing risks in the financial payment sector due to the expansion of the platform industry.
In its "2025 Work Plan," announced on Wednesday, the FSS stated that it will begin regular inspections of large electronic financial firms, also known as big techs. This marks the first time that big tech companies will be included in the FSS’s regular inspection targets.
The inspections will focus on the big tech companies' customer service response systems, payment gateway (PG) settlement systems, and user protection frameworks. The FSS will also assess how well these companies manage risks in the electronic payment sector to prevent these risks from spilling over into non-financial affiliates.
The FSS will also conduct a detailed review of the user authentication systems and comparison/recommendation algorithms used by online platform companies. This comes in the wake of last year’s issues with TMON and WEMAKEPRICE (TMEP), which raised public concern about minimizing consumer harm in the e-commerce sector. The FSS will also examine whether cryptocurrency exchanges and other crypto-related businesses are complying with legal and self-regulatory requirements.
The FSS is tightening controls on preventing unfair sales practices. It will preemptively inspect high-risk business locations and corporate insurance agencies (GA) that pose a significant risk of consumer harm. It has also pledged strict action against unfair business practices, such as pushing financial products to affiliated companies.
In addition, the FSS will pay close attention to the internal control functions of financial institutions. In line with the accountability structure that will be implemented this year, the FSS plans to continuously monitor the internal control systems of each financial institution to ensure they are being properly implemented.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
