Korean Financial Authorities Release Amended Guidelines On Financial-Sector Personal-Information Protection

Ⅰ. Background of Amendments

The Financial Supervisory Commission ("FSC") and Financial Supervisory Service ("FSS") of Korea first published their "Guidelines on Personal-Information Protection in the Financial Sector" in July of 2013. The Guidelines were intended to provide financial institutions with clear standards with respect to compliance with personal-information-protection laws such as the Credit Information Use and Protection Act ("CIUPA") and the Personal Information Protection Act ("PIPA"), and to support them in fulfilling their responsibilities with respect to protecting personal (including credit) information. After CIUPA was later amended and strengthened, a variety of different compliance approaches arose. Accordingly, the FSS together with eight other financial-industry associations organized a joint team and released proposed amended Guidelines on February 2017. The Guidelines were then finalized after consultation with the FSC and Ministry