「금융소비자 보호에 관한 법률안」상의 판매행위 규제에 관한 검토

As interests in protection of financial consumers are increasing since the financial crisis in 2008, a wide range of political measures for protection of financial consumers has been sought, and so the “Bill on the Protection of Financial Consumers” was submitted to the national assembly in July 2012 and is being reviewed and discussed. The Bill intends to regulate business conducts related to selling financial products and to solve the problems of regulatory absence or regulatory arbitrage occurring under the current regulation system by each business category. Further, it seeks to prevent unfair and illegal sales of financial products in order to promote protection of financial consumers. The Bill prescribes general principles on selling financial products including suitability rule and explanation duty. Moreover, it divides financial consumers into general financial consumers and professional financial consumers and differentiates the level of protection, and further differentiate the level and contents of “control” by each financial product, considering risks and characteristics of different types of financial products. The Bill intends to unify the “selling control” over financial institutions, to establish an integrated supervision system, to set up rules of business conduct with respect to selling financial products, to promote protection of financial consumers, and to create sound financial transactions in order to contribute to the development of the financial market. However, because the applicable range of the Bill is narrow, it is necessary to extend its subject of application, and extend scope of liability for damages in connection with violation of explanation duty into the entire financial products. As it is highly difficult for financial consumers to prove the sellers’ liability incurred by violation of explanation duty, it is desirable to have sellers of financial products bear the responsibility for liability proof. It is also necessary to provide appropriate and reasonable disciplinary measures on violation of selling control, regulation or rules to require financial products sellers. to comply with those rules properly, and to file a case of the cooling off system to a court for a careful decision and a rational choice of financial consumers.