"Good regulatory governance" is a core condition to reduction of regulatory uncertainty and enhancement in stability of the country’s financial system. At the center of the "good regulatory governance" lies inter-dependency between financial regulat...
"Good regulatory governance" is a core condition to reduction of regulatory uncertainty and enhancement in stability of the country’s financial system. At the center of the "good regulatory governance" lies inter-dependency between financial regulators and financial companies within the system. For the sake of sound management of the regulatory governance, financial companies should render solid supports and trust in the government’s regulatory authorities. The regulatory trust has preconditions: Independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism of the regulatory authorities. When these regulatory authorities secure independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism, they can minimize regulatory policy errors at the time of high uncertainty surrounding policy decision-makings. Against this background, the present study is intended to analyze effects of these regulatory authorities’ conditions on 1) trust and acceptance of financial policies from the perspective of the financial companies on an empirical basis; and 2) policy errors.
This study conducted a two-pillar approach. For the first pillar, an empirical study was conducted on how financial companies accept financial regulations given the extent of perception among the employees of the companies. In more details, this study examined how independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism of the regulatory authorities (which are the preconditions to enhancement of trust in regulatory bodies) influence acceptance of financial regulations among financial companies. For this purpose, this study examined how the employees of financial companies perceive the conditions to the regulatory governance as well as how these conditions influence on trust, and how such regulatory trust affects policy acceptance. To this end, a survey was conducted on employees of financial companies, whereas an empirical study was performed with a structural equation model on the basis of the survey results.
As for the second pillar of this study, a case study was conducted on how these conditions of the regulatory authorities affect policy errors. In concrete terms, a case study on the 2003 sale of Korea Exchange Bank and the pertinent financial policymaking process focused on how non-fulfillment of the conditions of "good regulatory governance"led to policy errors. Based on this, this study examined the conditions required for regulatory authorities.
This two-pillar approach, a combination of an empirical analysis and a case study, is intended to generate complementary and mutually-benefitting study results as both sides of a coin. As a result of this study, it was found that trust in the financial regulators, built on independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism of the authorities, enhances financial companies’acceptance of financial policies, thus contributing to the government’s accomplishment of regulatory goals. The regulatory policies have large impacts on perception of employees of financial companies, and, the level of trust among the employees was found to be one of major factors that determine their acceptance of financial regulations. As a result of the analysis on technical statistics on questions of the survey to measure potential variableson a scale of one (1) to five (5), professionalism was found to be the most important variable(2.97-3.05), followed by fairness(2.71-2.73) and transparency(2.58-2.68). The on-average responses were: professionalism(3.01), fairness(2.72), transparency(2.63), regulatory acceptance(2.68), trust(2.64), accountability(2.52), independence(2.24). Except professionalism(3.01), on-average scores of other variables were below 3 points, indicating that the respondents distrust financial regulators. Particularly, accountability(2.52) and independence(2.24) were found to be significantly low, reflecting the respondents’ negative perception against the regulatory bodies as for these variables.
The case study on 2003 sale of Korea Exchange Bank offers a good guidance and direction in how the conditions of the "good regulatory governance (independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism)" can prevent policy errors of the regulators. When fulfilling the conditions of the regulatory governance, the regulators can minimize policy errors in planning, setting up, executing and remedying measures. Failure to fulfill these conditions leads to policy errors, as found in the case of the sale of Korea Exchange Bank.
The aforementioned study results provideimportant implications as in the following, particularly from the perspective of policies in relation to the empirical study on the governance conditions’ impacts on acceptance of regulatory policies.
First, the result that all the variables except professionalism recorded below 3 points indicates significantly negative perception of the financial companies against the financial regulators. With the exception of professionalism(3.01), other variables that determine "trust"are in the low territory: Fairness(2.72), transparency(2.63), responsibility(2.52) and independence(2.24). This means that, in general, the regulators fail to perform its politically-independent roles ina fair, transparent and accountable manner.
Second, the financial regulators performed the lowest in the categories of independence and accountability. The purpose of establishing the Financial Supervisory Services (FSS a quasi-public body) as an independent regulator was to secure independence from potential political pressures or any political maneuvers in a bid to ensure neutral and responsible financial supervision. However, under the current regulatory system, the Financial Services Commission (FSC; an administrative body under the wing of the Prime Minister) exercises decision-making authority and the FSS supports execution of the policies. This current system may invite regulatory bureaucracy and generate side effects from unfair political clouts. The respondents’ perception that the regulators lack accountability stems from mixture of a policymaking function and a regulatory supervision function by the regulators despite the continued efforts to separate policymaking and regulatory supervision. Under the current system, even whenthe regulators fail to perform regulatory supervision, there would be none to be held accountable for.
Third, the respondents’low evaluation of regulatory transparency(2.63) manifests that the financial regulators fail to maintain transparency in decision-making and execution of regulatory policies. Such lack of transparency may cause distrust and a sense of alienation to not only financial companies but also the general public. The government must disclose the information related to financial supervision and regulations to the relevant supervisory authorities, financial companies and financial consumers, so that the process of financial supervision and examination can be carried out in a transparent manner.
Fourth, it is urgent to increase trust in financial regulators. In the past, the government’s financial regulators had a supplier-focused approach in the policy-making process. The financial control was regarded as a crucial source of political clouts, and the government believed that more regulatory controls spur political power. The financial regulators appeared a government agency wielding politicalpower to enforce the regulatory process on the basis of the unilateral and one-sided regulations and guidelines. However, with the spread of democratic governance paradigm, regulatory trust by financial companies has been regardedas the most important factor. As found in this study, regulatory trust can be restored by increases of independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism. Furthermore, the government must look into how to boost trust of financial companies itself, rather than criticizing moral hazard and distrust of financial companies in financial policies.
Fifth, this study confirmed that the regulators must secure "good regulatory governance" of financial companies to cut back policy errors as witnessed in the sale of Korea Exchange Bank. Financial companies retain public characteristics in nature. When standing on the verge of collapse, bailouts including deposit insurance are injected into financial companies to sustain stability of the nation’s financial system. This is one of reasons why the government regulatesthe ownership and governance of financial companies to prevent financial companies from being misused as private vaults. In addition, in most countries, industrial capital’s ownership in financial companies are regulated to avert potential side effects that can be generated when industrial capitals misuse assets of financial companies to expand their own industrial businesses. Notwithstanding this, as seen in the case of the sale of Korea Exchange Bank, the Korean regulators committed policy errors in selling the bank to a US-based private equity fund, and failed to makeremedies of such errors.
The knowledge and the experience gained in the empirical study and the case study under the present study will contribute to enhance acceptance of regulatory policies by boosting trust in regulatory authorities, when "good regulatory governance" takes firm root. At the same time, in order to minimize policy errors with uncertainties around, this study is intended to contribute to minimizing policy errors and boost problem-solving errors at times of reoccurrence of similar situations by identifying conditions of "good regulatory governance." The riskiest assumption at the time of uncertainty is monopoly of decision-making authority and exercise of political clouts by a government body as if it is a supernatural power. Monopolistic policy cannot be freed from potential dogmatic errors and prejudice. With sound philosophy and sincere sense of duty to be performed for the public interest, financial regulators can implement good policies, not being swayed by logics of a certain group. Only when the public interest dominates private interests, financial regulators can develop into a sound organization that is trusted by the public.
With identification of independence, reliability, transparency, fairness and professionalism required for financial regulators as "good regulatory governance" conditions, the lessons from policy errors and the accumulated trials-and-errors and should serve as milestones to minimize policy errors under regulatory uncertainties and prevent recurrence of trials-and-errors and policy errors.