[Relocation of Financial Public Institutions]③Will Lee Chanjin and Park Sangjin, Longtime Associates of President Lee, Prevent the Move of the FSS and KDB?

Lee Chanjin, FSS Governor, Was Judicial Training Classmate of President Lee
Park Sangjin, KDB President, Was Law School Classmate
Past Opposition to Relocation in Spotlight... Can They Persuade for Staying in Seoul?

"It's laughable for a supervisor to leave a construction site." (Lee Chanjin, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service)

"The Korea Development Bank must play its role from Seoul, the country's financial center." (Park Sangjin, Chairman of the Korea Development Bank)

Lee Chanjin, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (left), and Park Sangjin, Chairman of the Korea Development Bank.

As discussions on the second phase of relocating public institutions to the provinces have reignited, past remarks by Lee Chanjin, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, and Park Sangjin, Chairman of the Korea Development Bank—both of whom have previously drawn a clear line against such relocation—are receiving renewed attention. Both leaders have longstanding ties with President Lee Jaemyung, and it remains to be seen whether they will have any influence during the debate over relocating their respective organizations outside Seoul.

According to financial authorities on August 18, Governor Lee has not recently issued any separate statements or taken specific steps internally in response to the ongoing topic of relocating the Financial Supervisory Service to a provincial city.

An official from the Financial Supervisory Service stated, "Governor Lee's position has not changed: the body responsible for supervising financial institutions needs to remain on-site in Seoul." The official added, "However, as no official relocation plan has been announced yet, we are not actively responding or preparing concrete measures at this stage."

The possibility of relocating the Financial Supervisory Service, along with the Financial Services Commission, to Sejong is being raised again. Some within the organizations now expect that relocation may be unavoidable this time. Nonetheless, Governor Lee's significant influence within the current administration is cited as a potential variable.

Governor Lee is a classmate of President Lee Jaemyung from judicial training. According to consensus both inside and outside financial authorities, Governor Lee played a decisive role last year when governmental efforts to dismantle the Financial Services Commission, separate it from the Financial Supervisory Service, and establish the Financial Consumer Protection Service were eventually scrapped.

Likewise, Chairman Park, who was also a classmate of President Lee at Chung-Ang University School of Law (class of 1982), has consistently expressed the belief that the Korea Development Bank must remain in Seoul. Shortly after his inauguration last year, he declared regarding the previous administration’s plan to relocate the Korea Development Bank headquarters to Busan, "I will do my utmost to ensure the bank is excluded from the government's target list for public institution relocation."

Chairman Park is known to have been close enough with President Lee during their university days to study together for the bar exam and even cook meals together.

For this reason, there is still some hope within both organizations that the two leaders may be able to persuade the government of the necessity for their institutions to remain in Seoul.

The government is expected to finalize and announce the list of institutions subject to the second phase of provincial relocation as early as next week. While the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service are strongly expected to move to Sejong, it is reported that a final decision for the Korea Development Bank and Export-Import Bank has yet to be made, given the significant size of their headquarters in Seoul.

However, some point out that the situation is different this time. The second phase of relocating public institutions is part of the current administration's vision for balanced regional development under the 'Five Core Cities and Three Special Zones' plan, and local government chiefs, particularly from the ruling party, including those in Busan, are actively working to attract such institutions.

An official from the financial sector commented, "Relocation of public institutions is intricately linked to regional development, a key national policy, making it difficult for the views of organizational heads alone to change the course." The official added, "In order for any exception to be made for remaining in Seoul, there must be a compelling justification and solid logic that aligns with the government's overall policy direction."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.