Regulator unveils steps to boost fairness, transparency in CEO selection for bank holding firms

SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Yonhap) -- The country's financial regulator on Thursday unveiled a set of measures to boost fairness and transparency in selecting chief executives of bank holding companies. Under the measures unveiled by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), a bank holding firm's CEO recommendation committee should be comprised of independent outside directors. Also, tougher requirements should be in place when a CEO recommendation committee selects a CEO candidate. A final CEO candidate can be recommended when he or she wins approval from more than two-thirds of the committee members, up from the current required approval of more than half of the committee members. The CEO should win the votes of more than three-fourths of the committee members when she or he is reelected, according to the FSC. A CEO should also win the votes of more than half of shareholders and one-fourth of the voting shares issued in total. The thresholds are also raised when he or she reelected. In addition, other nonfinancial factors should be considered for CEO evaluations and a more competitive environment should be created for candidates, it said. The FSC said it will seek to draw up a set of revisions to related laws this year. sam@yna.co.kr(END)