[EDITORIALS]Poor credit card audit

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[EDITORIALS]Poor credit card audit

Credit card insolvencies are still pressing our economy. The mass production of credit delinquents due to excessive credit card issuances is the reason consumer spending is struggling to recover from the stagnant situation.
Therefore, the Board of Audit and Inspection’s special investigation of credit card policy that started in February has led to expectations that it would thoroughly examine the truth so that such foolish happenings don’t occur again.
But yesterday’s announcement by the Board of Audit and Inspection’s special investigation team was disappointing. The board announced that the credit card crisis was a failure of government policy that stemmed from problems in financial oversight. But the investigation as to why the government easily lifted the regulations on credit cards and why the supervision was not properly conducted was insufficient. For example, the financial supervisory authorities had tried to restrict and introduce corrective actions on card companies’ cash services, but they have either postponed or abolished those measures.
The Board of Audit and Inspection simply said that the supervisory authorities did not properly arrange security measures or lost policy consistency. The board was negligent in inspecting on what grounds the necessity to strengthen supervision was ignored, how much of political power was involved and how the relationships were between companies and the authorities. The authorities will have nothing to learn from such an inspection about how to cope when faced with similar situations.
It is difficult to understand why the board only warned the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, while demanding a reprimand of the deputy governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, then the director of the service.
The board is giving the responsibility for the credit card crisis to the director, but those responsible for the “free issuance” policies get off scot-free.
Just because it was a policy judgment, the officials cannot avoid responsibility. The responsibility is at least moral, if not legal. At least, the role and the problems of the officials should be clarified in detail. Officials should reflect on what they have done wrong in managing the credit card system, instead of making evasive remarks.
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