금융투자상품 시장에서의 금융소비자 보호 - 제한된 합리성 개념을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This paper suggests that financial consumer protection system should be developed to reflect on the bounded rationality of financial consumers in Korea. Previously, the financial consumer was normally regarded as the entity to be rational so that he would do financial activities rationally on condition that full information was given to him. Therefore, regarding financial consumer protection, financial policy and regulation concentrate on decreasing the asymmetric information between financial companies and financial consumers, by enforcing financial companies to supply more information and transparency to financial consumers. However, the recent studies show that a financial consumer may have the bounded rationality which means that financial consumers have limitation on recognizing and utilizing the information rationally. According to them, the financial consumer with bounded rationality may not make optimal decisions on trading financial services even if he get the full information on the financial product and service. Especially, financial investment products are too complicated for financial consumers to rationally understand and make decision on the products. In that sense, it is expected that financial consumers in the area of trading financial investment products are more damaged by their bounded rationality. This paper shows some cases that the financial consumers were damaged in trading financial investment products of Korea, by using the complaints and disputes data of Financial Supervisory Service as well as three case studies. The results are summarized as follows. First, among the complaints and disputes of financial consumers, the ratio of complaints and disputes regarding financial investment products is rapidly increasing. Second, by analyzing three cases including sales of equity linked securities, funds managing derivative products and foreign exchange swap trading, we find that many financial consumers,due to their bounded rationality, were much damaged in trading with financial companies. There are many examples that financial consumers bought the complicated products without properly understanding their risk and character even if they were formally delivered the full information by the financial companies. Third, the current system for financial consumer protection does not enough respond to the problem coming from the consumer’s bounded rationality. Up to now, the bounded rationality of financial consumer were less considered in the jurisdiction of the court and financial regulation and supervision. To protect financial consumers having bounded rationality in financial market, this paper suggests that the principles related to the disclosure of information and financial consulting should be applied to financial regulation and making jurisdiction. First, the disclosure of information should be regulated more concretely. The financial regulation should require that the financial companies have obligation to deliver the information in simple and understandable way how financial consumers fully recognize. Second, regarding financial consulting with financial consumer, three rules, which is ‘know your customer’, suitability, and appropriateness, should be also kept by financial companies. The rule, ‘know your customer’ means that financial companies should gather and know sufficient information from the consumer before providing financial services. The suitability requires financial companies to ensure that any product or service which they offer to consumer is in line with the need of consumers. The appropriateness is the required principle when financial companies sell the product or service without offering or recommending it to consumers. In addition, this paper suggests that legal system for financial consumer protection needs to adopt some principle of the social law system so far as we admit the concept that financial consumers is intelligently inferior to financial companies.