Financial Security Agency to be launched next month

An independent body in charge of handling financial security and preventing financial crimes in South Korea will be launched next month, sources said Tuesday, in a bid to beef up the sector's ability to share and protect financial information.

The tentatively named Financial Security Agency will integrate information sharing and analysis functions of the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearing Institute and Koscom, a public corporation that manages the IT infrastructure of the country's securities market, according to the sources.

The FSA, scheduled to be inaugurated April 10, will constitute the country's tripartite financial system, along with the Financial Services Commission , the top financial regulatory body, and the Financial Supervisory Service.

The FSA will manage the entire flow of financial information provided by banks and securities firms and give them security consulting services. Here in South Korea, each sector has their own information analysis center, as the KFTC deals with the banking industry and Koscom handles data processing of brokerage houses.

The establishment of the FSA came as the financial authorities have vowed to tighten financial security and protection of consumer rights and to enhance information sharing, after a series of online hacking attacks against local banks and a massive private financial data leakage.

In 2009 and 2011, Internet services of South Korean banks, including Nonghyup Bank, became unavailable due to a whirl of denial-of-service attacks, but the banking industry has not shared their experience and related information with other financial sectors, such as brokerage firms and insurance companies.

In January 2014, more than 100 million customers' data was found to have seeped from three major credit card firms, including No. 2 KB Kookmin Card Co., in the largest-ever data leak in the country. (Yonhap)