Recently, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Financial Services Commission carried out a 'personnel exchange' for the first time in about eight years. The last exchange involved Director General level, while this one is at the Director level. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance appointed Park Jeong-won (51st National Civil Service Exam) as the Director of Policy Planning, who previously served as the Director of Virtual Asset Inspection at the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), while Yang Yoon-young (49th National Civil Service Exam) moved from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to take up the position of Director of Corporate Restructuring at the Financial Services Commission. There are discussions suggesting that this rare Director level exchange between the two ministries is related to the history of the 'Financial Policy Bureau' line within the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
According to the government on the 9th, the current system, where the Ministry of Strategy and Finance oversees macroeconomic policy while the Financial Services Commission is responsible for domestic financial policy, solidified with the onset of the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2008. Before that, all of these functions were managed by the Ministry of Finance and Economy. The Financial Services Commission's duties were then handled by what was known as the 'Financial Policy Bureau,' and Choi Sang-mok, the acting Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, was the last Director of the Financial Policy Bureau during his time at the Ministry of Finance.
Those who experienced their time as Deputy Directors in the Financial Policy Bureau have nearly disappeared within the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. Looking at representative bureaucrats from the Financial Policy Bureau, most of them have either left the ministry or retired from public service and have been re-employed in key positions. Lee Hyung-il, head of the Statistics Korea, Hong Du-seon, CEO of Korea Evaluation Data, Woo Hae-young, President of Korea Financial Intermediation (all 36th National Civil Service Exam), Kim Byeong-hwan, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Seong Chang-hoon, CEO of Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation (all 37th National Civil Service Exam) are notable examples.
Ko Kwang-hee, head of the Planning and Coordination Team of the Acting President Support Unit (41st National Civil Service Exam), along with Kim Myung-kyu and Joo Hyun-jun, Deputy Directors (Director General level, 43rd National Civil Service Exam), are currently considered the last ties to the Financial Policy Bureau remaining in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. A source from the former Ministry of Finance and Economy remarked, '"The separation of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Financial Services Commission happened almost 20 years ago," adding that even if someone was a Deputy Director back then, they would already be at the Director General level or higher now.'
This indicates that there are no Financial Policy Bureau personnel starting from the Director level. In the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the position within the Economic Policy Bureau known as 'Funds Market Division' requires urgent cooperation with the Financial Services Commission. In the past, this position was filled and operated by those who had experienced financial policy, such as Lee Hyung-il, head of the Statistics Korea, Kim Byeong-hwan, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Joo Hyun-jun, a Director in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, but the pool of personnel from the Financial Policy Bureau has long been depleted.
As a result, there are interpretations that personnel exchanges aim to cultivate talents within the Ministry of Strategy and Finance who can also manage financial policies. In fact, this recent personnel exchange is reported to have been actively pushed by Kim Byeong-hwan, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, who has a background in the Financial Policy Bureau.
It is noteworthy whether this personnel exchange, which has opened with the Director level, will expand to the Deputy Director level. In fact, there have been opportunities for personnel exchanges at the Deputy Director level in 2010 when Choi Hoon (35th National Civil Service Exam), the former regular member of the Financial Services Commission, and Kim Hak-soo (34th National Civil Service Exam), the current CEO of NextTrade, exchanged roles as the Director of the Funds Market Division in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Director of Industrial Finance in the Financial Services Commission.
Could the subtle hostility that has formed among the 'young bureaucrats' of the two ministries also be alleviated? There are complaints from some within the Ministry of Strategy and Finance that 'the Financial Services Commission cannot be controlled.' Instances often occur where the work of officials from both ministries overlaps, and there are cases where they ignore collaboration requests. Until the level of Director General, there was a perception of being 'one family' which ensured a harmonious cooperation in work. However, below the Director level, particularly at the Deputy Director level, there is now a prevalent perception of being 'strangers.'
Crises like the 'Legoland incident,' the 'Dunchon Jugong incident,' and the 'Taeyoung Construction incident' are cited as representative examples where the collaboration between the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, which outlines the big picture, and the Financial Services Commission, which implements actionable policy tools, is necessary. A government official noted, '"Deputy Directors from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance lack understanding of domestic finance, and Deputy Directors from the Financial Services Commission are insufficient in understanding macroeconomic policy or international finance. For proper economic policies to emerge, cooperation between the two ministries is essential."
The two ministries have drifted apart as much as the distance between Sejong (Ministry of Strategy and Finance) and Seoul (Financial Services Commission). It is hoped that the results of the personnel exchange experiment among those below the Director level will manifest as policy synergies.