Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin said in a New Year address on Thursday that 2026 would be an important turning point that would determine the direction of the South Korean economy. He said a shift to “productive finance” was essential to solve the problems facing the economy and lay the groundwork for a new leap forward.

He said the country should activate the capital market to channel liquidity concentrated in real estate and overseas stocks into companies. He said it should also secure future growth engines by diversifying the industrial structure through bold support for venture and innovative firms.

He said authorities would respond strictly to stock price manipulation and strengthen efforts to restore trust in the capital market. He also said they would continue improving capital market infrastructure, including quickly forcing zombie companies out through stronger supervision of the KOSDAQ market.

Lee said they would raise the intensity and speed of investigations into major cases by focusing on the joint response team currently operating to eradicate stock price manipulation. He said they would swiftly investigate and shift cases to criminal probes upon detecting unfair or unsound conduct, and punish violations strictly under a zero-tolerance principle.

He also said authorities would promote productive finance and build a digital finance ecosystem centered on user protection. He said they would create a financial ecosystem that can support innovation at venture firms and small and medium-sized enterprises by pursuing a qualitative and quantitative expansion in the supply of risk capital.

He said the financial sector would strengthen systems for IT risk monitoring and immediately activate inspection and response frameworks in the event of major incidents such as hacking or data leaks.

Lee said he would make the best efforts to address structural challenges at the agency, including staff shortages. He said the complexity of finance was expected to grow and its patterns to diversify, and urged employees to actively explore new issues and maintain a mindset of learning.