Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) launches campaign to promote long-term, diversified investment in retirement pensions

[Financial News] The Financial Supervisory Service, together with the four major financial associations and pension providers, is launching a campaign to establish a culture of long-term, diversified investment in retirement pensions. The aim is to promote stable management, in keeping with their original purpose, of retirement pension assets, as demand has recently been shifting toward short-term investments. 
On the 3rd, the FSS held the launch ceremony for the inaugural “Retirement Pension for the Long Run Campaign” at FKI Tower in Yeouido, Seoul. The campaign is being jointly carried out by the FSS, the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB), the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA), the Korea Life Insurance Association, the General Insurance Association of Korea, and retirement pension providers.
The campaign was conceived against a backdrop of growing retirement pension assets and a recent surge in subscribers switching to defined contribution (DC) plans, influenced by factors such as the booming stock market. Unlike defined benefit (DB) plans, under which workers entrust the management of their retirement pension assets to pension providers and others, DC plans allow workers to manage the assets themselves. Investment performance can boost individual returns, but comes with a corresponding decrease in stability.
According to the FSS, retirement pension assets totaled 558.3 trillion won as of June this year, up by an average of 14.3% annually from 382.4 trillion won in 2023. Meanwhile, from January through July this year, about 340,000 subscribers switched to DC plans, a sharp 118% increase from about 156,000 in the same period last year.
Financial authorities say they are concerned about investment practices that concentrate assets meant to be managed over the long term for a stable retirement in particular assets and short-term trading. They plan to use the campaign to provide subscribers with the knowledge needed for long-term, diversified investment.
The FSS will launch the “L.O.N.G” campaign, linking education with practical action and guided by four pillars: Learn, Open, Nurture, and Grow. It aims to promote pension education by publishing and distributing a retirement pension guidebook. It also plans to hold “Pension Building and Nurturing Week” every year and continue the campaign by forming a working-level consultative group of participating organizations.
Plans are also underway to revamp the retirement pension portal. The FSS aims to transform the Integrated Pension Portal from a service that simply lets users look up pension information into a comprehensive information platform that supports the public in making informed investment decisions.
In his opening remarks that day, FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin said, “Preparing for retirement is completed through the accumulation of small actions, rather than grand resolutions,” and added, “I hope that the small interest shown by one subscriber today will come back as a solid retirement asset in the future.” He continued, “Through this campaign, we will stand by subscribers and help them to the very end so that they can all choose long-term investment.”
[email protected] Park Mun-su Reporter