The BOK aimed at the Financial Services Commission, “the amendment to the Electric Money Act is the’Big Brother Act'”

Enter 2021.02.17 12:00 | Revision 2021.02.17 13:51

BOK requests legal review at two law firms… Request to delete Big Brother clause
Intensive criticism of “Installing CCTV in all households to prevent domestic violence”

The Bank of Korea has once again counterattacked on the amendment bill of the Electronic Finance Act (Electric Money Act), which is in conflict with the Financial Services Commission. Looking into the internal funding transactions of big tech companies such as Naver and Kakao is unprecedented in the world, so controversy over’Big Brother’ could be raised. As the BOK is ultimately responsible for the payment and settlement system, it requested the deletion of provisions that cause excessive invasion of personal information.

The BOK said on the 17th, “The amendment to the Electric Money Act is a clear Big Brother Act, and related provisions must be deleted during the discussions of the National Assembly.”

The amendment proposed by Yoon Gwan-seok, chairman of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee (Democratic Party) on November 27, last year, created a’electronic payment transaction clearing industry’ to secure transparency in fund transactions for big tech companies, and reviewed the KFTC as a clearing institution Contains. The BOK, which has jurisdiction over the KFTC, has continuously raised concerns over the possibility of infringement on the authority of the Financial Services Commission. BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol also raised his voice as “excessive and unnecessary involvement in the central bank.”

The BOK revealed the results of requesting legal review to two domestic law firms on the same day, emphasizing that “if the amendment is passed, the Financial Services Commission will actually collect all transaction information of big tech companies through the KFTC without any restrictions.”

According to the amendment, big tech companies are obligated to provide all customer transaction information to KFTC. In case of violation, a penalty will be imposed within 50% of the profit. The amendment also exempts big tech companies from applying laws related to personal information protection to such information provision.

The Financial Services Commission will be able to access the transaction information collected at KFTC without restrictions. The Financial Services Commission said it would collect transaction information for user protection and transaction transparency, but the BOK is in a position that such information acquisition is excessive.

The BOK’s excessive acquisition of personal transaction information by a specific institution violates the’required minimum collection principle’ pursuant to Article 3 of the Personal Information Protection Act, and infringes the’right to self-determination of personal information’ under Articles 17 and 10 of the Constitution. It was argued with the opinions of experts.

Han Eun said, “It’s like having CCTV installed in all homes to prevent domestic violence and watching,” he said. “Large law firms also judge that the amendment to the Electric Fund Act corresponds to Big Brother.”

He also emphasized that it is unprecedented in the world for a specific government agency to look into the internal transactions of big tech companies. In particular, in the case of China, this is the only case of institutionalizing liquidation through an external agency’Wanglian’ for big-tech payment transactions, and even this does not look into internal transactions. Wanglian’s big tech payment liquidation target is limited to fund payment transactions (external transactions) between big tech companies and banks.

The BOK requested the deletion of the provisions related to’Big Brother’, which could be abused as a means of collecting excessive personal information, as the purpose of the amendment to the Jeon Bank Act is to reorganize laws and systems for innovation and stability of digital finance. The provisions pointed out by the BOK include the opening of the e-payment transaction settlement system and the obligation to liquidate e-current transactions.

“The payment and settlement system is the basis of the financial system that supports economic activities by resolving the relationship between bonds and debts of economic entities, and is operated and managed by central banks with exclusive issuing power in most countries.” As the central bank in charge of the final, we oppose the use of the payment system as a means of’Big Brother’.”