FX supervisory body sparks power play

On the eve of the birth of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is to supervise transactions of black money, several government ministries are fighting each other to control the body.

The FIU is an organization that will be established in January next year as part of preparations for the second-phase opening of the nation's foreign exchange transactions.

According to government sources, the Ministry of Finance and Economy wanted to run it as a financial transaction supervisory body, but in the process of legislation, it has changed into a body that offers investigation information to the Prosecutor's Office.

In the United States or Australia, such an authority is operated as a financial transaction supervision body led by an economic ministry. In Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, an FIU is operated by the prosecutor's office but its control of the FIU is limited to criminal investigation.

In Korea, the law stipulates that the FIU will be controlled by the Prosecutor's Office, involving a total of 103 types of crimes, such as investigation of prostitution, drugs, organized crime and general tax evasion.

However, police and the National Information Service are excluded from the list of offices that will get related information. It limited its information to the customs and tax offices as well as the Financial Supervisory Commission. In this connection, the police and the National Information Service are protesting strongly against it.

Also, the National Tax Service opposes the idea of the FIU being led by the Prosecutor's Office.