On August 21, 2019, Kim & Chang hosted a seminar on “Reform of Firewall and Outsourcing Regulations” at the Korean Federation of Banks Building in Seoul.  

Chief compliance officers from financial services companies (ING Singapore and Citi Japan) participated as topic presenters, and attendees including compliance officers of the Financial Services Commission (“FSC”) and the Financial Supervisory Service (“FSS”), professionals from financial services companies (HSBC and CA CIB), experts from the fields of academia (Seoul National University) and research (Korea Institute of Finance and Hana Institute of Finance) actively engaged in presentation and discussion sessions.

The seminar was divided into two sessions.  In the first session on “Reform of Firewall/Chinese wall Regulations,” Chiew Fai Chan, Head of Legal Financial Markets Asia-Pacific of ING Singapore, presented on Singapore’s firewall regulations.  In the second session that explored the topic of “Reform of Outsourcing Regulations,” Matthew van Weezel, Citi Japan’s Chief Compliance Officer, gave a presentation on firewall and outsourcing regulations in Japan.  

In the panel discussions following the topic presentations, the seminar discussed the necessity of rationalization of the firewall and outsourcing regulations and explored relevant action plans ahead of the implementation of a proposed industry standard which aims to strengthen internal control by financial services companies, in keeping with the “Proposed Reforms Regarding Regulations of Financial Investment Business Activities” announced by the FSS in May 2019.  

In particular, the seminar served as a venue for working-level compliance managers of financial services companies to share the issues they are facing and explore solutions, with topic presenters sharing their insights on Singapore’s firewall regulations and Japanese outsourcing regulations based on real-life cases, and panelists having a deep-dive discussion on the situation in Korea and challenges faced by foreign banks and securities companies in comparison with the presented cases. 

Kim & Chang’s senior advisor Jang Young Lee took charge of the general planning and hosted the seminar, and our attorneys Seong-Koo Cheong and Moon-Sun Kyoung participated in the panel discussion.  Approximately 160 attendees convened for the seminar, including employees and executives from multinational and domestic financial services companies.