South Korea’s financial regulatory authority will conduct all-out probes on financial institutions in the fourth quarter to prevent mishaps and unfair trade and place consumer protection as top priority, said Yoon Suk-heun, Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) governor.

“We may have to wage a war with financial institutions to protect consumers,” Yoon, a progressive professor at Seoul National University recruited as the third FSS governor under the one-year-old administration of President Moon Jae-in, told reporters on Monday.

Financial institutions have not come under regular checkups for the last three years. But the string of scandals - hiring irregularities at banks, fat-finger error at Samsung Securities, and excessive rate charges by some banks - demand revival of strict inspection, he said.

The FSS chief also ordered financial institutions to come up with plans of seating a union-recommended member on their boards. The higher policy-making Financial Services Commission previously indicated reservation on such move, saying more social consensus would be needed to seat a union-representing member on the managing board.

By Kim Dong-eun and Cho Jeehyun

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