The initial mission of the new financial watchdog that began operations Monday will be to inspect the nation's 19 major banks to determine the extent of their problem loans, officials of the agency said.
The Financial Supervisory Agency, designed to forge a transparent relationship between the government and financial institutions, takes over the bank inspections and supervisory operations of the Finance Ministry.
The FSA plans to start the inspections soon after the banks finish their annual shareholders' meetings this week and finalize their earnings reports for the year that ended March 31, agency officials said.