efforts to recruit high - fliers. the days when a prestigious university degree alone certifies your excellence has now come to an end. given the fast - evolving nature of work - related knowledge, we all need to strive to improve ourselves and develop expertise, while the bank needs to provide you with its full support. it is time for us to focus our endeavors on replacing the outdated belief, that only exceptional talent can get into the bank of korea, with a new perspective, where anyone with a decade of experience at the bank of korea will be worth scouting by headhunters. in order to achieve this, it is necessary to delegate job authority effectively, empowering individuals to take responsibility and make key decisions even at lower levels. also, we need to break away from the existing framework, where authority and responsibility were concentrated in a few hands and where only the governor represented the bank of korea. sharing information across the bank is crucial to prevent any monopolization of information within our organization. furthermore, when engaging in external communication, each one of us needs to embody our role as representatives of the bok and as experts in our respective fields. i will support these changes by reinforcing our human resources and performance evaluation systems, to ensure that employees who take the lead in driving these changes receive appropriate rewards and recognition for their contributions. dear members of the bank of korea, i want to highlight once again that the upcoming year will be a crucial period that requires changes in both policy decisions and in our own organizational management more than ever. given the diverse economic conditions prevailing across countries, it is imperative for us to conduct a more sophisticated policy operation to promote the stability of the korean economy. at the same time, we must actively perform our role as a government policy advisor, contributing to the medium - to long - term direction of the korean economy. also, in terms of organizational management, our focus should be on ensuring that our staff can tangibly experience the benefits of a more rewarding and fulfilling work life. as the old saying goes, we should create the new by learning from the old. let's build upon the achievements of our predecessors and create a new tradition to elevate the status of the bank of korea. i specifically would like to encourage our younger employees to be at the forefront of this transformation. i've heard that these days younger people often ask, " why? " or, " me? " or, " now? " when assigned a task. here

seung park : korea ’ s experience in the choice of bank supervisory arrangements speech by dr seung park, governor of the bank of korea, at the 39th seacen governors ’ conference, colombo, sri lanka, 12 february 2004. * 1. * * introduction this afternoon, i would like to talk about korea ’ s experience in the reform of the financial supervisory system. in april 1998, korea established an integrated financial supervisory body responsible for banking, securities, and insurance. as you may be well aware, the united kingdom and japan launched integrated financial supervisory systems : the u. k. in october 1997 and japan in june 1998. in some ways, therefore, korea was going along with a new international trend toward bringing together financial supervision within a single agency. the republic of china, and governor fai - nan perng will correct me if i am wrong, intends to set up an integrated financial supervisory body this july. and the people ’ s republic of china has, meanwhile, stripped the central bank of its bank supervisory function and established a separate bank supervisory agency. in most other seacen member countries, i understand that the central bank exercises the function of bank supervision. so i think that my fellow governors may have a deep interest in proposals to establish a separate financial supervisory body. i believe that korea ’ s experience, in this regard, may be of some help to you in this area. let me now express my deep thanks to our gracious host, governor jayawardena, for providing me with this opportunity. 2. establishment of integrated financial supervisory agency the financial supervisory system prior to integration until the 1998 reorganization, korea had several supervisory bodies responsible for different types of financial institutions. the office of bank supervision of the bank of korea ( bok ) supervised commercial banks. it authorized the market entry of new banks, laid down prudential regulations, held on - site examinations, and exercised discipline over them. two other major supervisory bodies were the securities supervisory board responsible for securities companies and the insurance supervisory board, the insurance company watchdog. both these supervisory bodies came under the direction of the ministry of finance and economy ( mofe ). debate over the integration of financial supervisory bodies great changes had, however, been taking place in the financial institutions ’ operating environment particularly since the mid 1990s. following korea ’ s admission to the oecd in late 1996, competition in the korean financial market became fiercer and fiercer as the financial and capital markets were thrown open in line with oecd