(image: Korea Bizwire/Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, March 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s chief financial regulator has announced a host of new policy measures and reforms, including a measure to prevent parents who are estranged from their children from receiving insurance money for their children’s deaths.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Tuesday that it has drawn up 18 improvements after ombudsman members reviewed improvement tasks focused on streamlining financial regulations, protecting consumer rights and enhancing convenience.
First, the system will be improved by making beneficiary explanations mandatory so that the beneficiary of the insurance money can be explicitly designated in the insurance contract.
There have been a number of instances in which a policyholder dies without designating a beneficiary because he or she was not properly explained about who would actually receive the insurance payout in the event of the policyholder’s death.
In these cases, insurance payments were given to birth parents or mothers who had been estranged for decades according to the rank of inheritance under civil law. However, the new measure will prevent payments from landing in the wrong hands.
The FSC decided to reflect in detail the mandatory description of the beneficiary of insurance money in the Financial Consumer Protection Act, which is scheduled to take effect in March of next year.
In addition, there will be a way to receive insurance contracts through short messaging service (SMS) or Kakao Talk messages.
Currently, it is possible to issue insurance contract data through electronic methods if the policyholder agrees, but it was unclear whether SMS and Kakao messages were possible.
When asked to interpret the related statutes, the FSC replied that it is willing to accept the use of these messaging services.
Meanwhile, the charging limit of prepaid electronic payment means such as mobile gift certificates will be raised.
In the first half of this year, the FSC will announce a plan to raise the charging limit of prepaid electronic payment methods, which is currently 2 million won (US$1,627), and 500,000 won for gift cards.
In addition, the FSC is in talks with industry players to enable diverse means of authentication such as biometric information when using credit card companies’ simple payment applications.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
