The Financial Services Commission will approve the acquisition of Tongyang and ABL Life by Woori Financial Group in early May.
According to the financial sector on the 24th, the Financial Services Commission will hold a regular meeting in early May and will present the agenda for the approval of Woori Financial's subsidiary integration. A senior official at the financial authorities noted, "A final decision on the approval of Woori Financial's acquisition of Tongyang and ABL Life will be made at the regular meeting in early May."
The Financial Services Commission's regular meetings are held every other Wednesday. Considering that the last regular meeting in April is on the 30th, the next meeting is set for May 14th. However, due to the schedules of attending Commissioners, the regular meeting has been moved up by about a week.
The decision on whether to approve the insurance company for Woori Financial was originally expected to be made on the 30th, but the Financial Services Commission has delayed the schedule somewhat as it exercises caution in its final verification. There are speculations in and out of the financial sector that there has been a change in the Financial Services Commission's stance, which was leaning toward conditional approval, but it is reported that there has been no change in direction.
The Financial Services Commission emphasizes a "fair and thorough review." Since the Financial Supervisory Service lowered Woori Financial's management evaluation grade to grade three, which disqualifies approval for subsidiary integration, solid evidence must support any exceptions made for approving the acquisition of the insurance company.
Woori Financial is taking various follow-up measures, such as establishing an ethics and internal control committee within the board of directors to improve internal controls, which caused the decline in its management evaluation grade. It is also focusing on raising its common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a measure of management soundness. The Financial Services Commission is expected to approve the acquisition of the insurance company on the condition that these management improvement plans are faithfully implemented.
If Woori Financial completes the acquisition of the insurance company, it will be able to escape the distorted revenue structure dependent on banks and leap forward as a comprehensive financial group. Woori Financial expects to reduce its dependence on banks from the current 90% to about 80% by 10 percentage points upon acquiring the insurance company.