The Finance Ministry plans to reorganize its banking, securities and international finance bureaus into two new bureaus tentatively called the Finance Bureau and the International Bureau by July next year, ministry officials said August 29.
The move is in line with the creation of a new Financial Inspection Agency, which will take over the ministry's current role in the areas of supervising and inspecting financial institutions. At the same time, three advisory panels to the finance minister -- the Insurance Council, the Securities and Exchange Council and the Financial System Research Council -- will be merged into one new body, they said.
Roughly 77 percent of staff members currently working at the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and in the Finance Ministry's Secretariat, Securities Bureau and Banking Bureau would be moved to the new agency. But the ministry would remain in control of planning policies related to the nation's financial and securities markets and issues concerning the legal framework under which financial companies operate.
In the event of a possible financial crisis that could destabilize the entire system, the agency is obliged to hold discussions with the ministry. The proposed Finance Bureau and International Bureau would have 124 and 134 staff members, respectively, with the ministry requesting an addition of two new people from fiscal 1998.
The planned Finance Bureau would in the future get an official English name that would differentiate it from the ministry's present Financial Bureau, which is in charge of such matters as national property and the treasury, according to ministry officials.