Watchdog to boost anti-money laundering efforts
South Korea’s financial regulator said Tuesday it plans to tighten its anti-money laundering checks into the nonbanking sector, joining growing global policy efforts to clamp down on the illegal activity.
Under the plan, the Financial Supervisory Service said it will focus its inspection on high-risk sectors, as well as expand inspections into non-banking financial institutions.
Previous inspections had mainly been focused on banks, accounting for 65 percent of the 43 inspections conducted in the 2011-2014 period.
An FSS official said the watchdog aims to raise the portion of inspections on insurers, securities firms and other non-bank institutions to over half of the total.
As part of efforts to bolster its anti-money laundering policy, the watchdog doubled the number of staff in its related department last month.
