우측 상단의 언어 탭에서 한국어로 언어 설정을 변경할 수 있습니다.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced plans for mandatory sustainability disclosures in 2021—an important step to improve transparency and encourage responsible investment in the country. Last month, the Korea Sustainability Standards Board (KSSB) released the interim standards.
South Korea’s financial sector has broadly supported KSSB's climate-related disclosure standards, though with some variation in the level of ambition, including on specific provisions such as Scope 3 emissions disclosures. These positions stand in contrast to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)—the country’s largest and most influential business group, which claims to represent Korean industry as a whole — which advocated against more ambitious reporting requirements. While financial institutions have engaged selectively on climate disclosure policy, KCCI has intervened more actively across a broader range of climate-related financial policies, often seeking to weaken regulations or pushing for a more cautious approach.
Many of South Korea’s major financial groups—including Shinhan Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, and KB Financial Group—also sit on the board of KCCI’s Financial Industry Committee. This divergence in positions, combined with KCCI’s significant influence, raises questions about how effectively financial sector views are reflected in the association’s policy engagement and in the development of the KSSB’s climate-related disclosure standards.
In January 2021, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced its intention to mandate sustainability reporting to enhance ESG-related disclosure and encourage responsible investment. But in October 2023, the FSC deferred the implementation timeline to 2026 or later, citing the need to align with disclosure schedules in other countries and to accommodate requests from the business community for additional time.
In April 2024, the Korea Sustainability Standards Board under the Korea Accounting Institute (KAI) published the Exposure Draft of the Korean Sustainability Disclosure Standards. The draft requires mandatory disclosure of climate-related risks and opportunities and sets related reporting standards for governance, strategy, risk management, metrics, and targets. The draft left open the question of mandatory scope 3 emissions disclosures. The draft was initially scheduled for public consultation through the end of August 2024, followed by the publication of the final standards.
Following months of consultation and public feedback, the interim decision, announced in October 2025, confirmed that the climate-related disclosure standards would remain consistent with those outlined in the April 2024 exposure draft. In this decision, KSSB also elected to require mandatory scope 3 emissions disclosure, but to introduce a grace period before full implementation. At the time of publication of this analysis, the finalized sustainability disclosure standards have not been released, though they are expected to closely reflect the interim standards.
South Korea’s financial sector is broadly supportive of the climate-related disclosure standards of the Korea Sustainability Standards Board, though the intensity, specificity, and ambition of policy engagement vary across institutions. KB Financial Group, NH-Amundi Asset Management (a subsidiary of NongHyup Financial Group), and the Korea National Pension Service (NPS) are the most vocal in calling for mandatory climate disclosure, while financial industry associations show limited engagement with the policy. Meanwhile, in November 2025, Hana Financial Group published its 2024 Sustainability KSSB Report, becoming the first institution in South Korea’s financial sector to do so, using the draft standards disclosed by the KSSB as its basis.
At a September 2024 open forum and a December 2024 seminar hosted by the KSSB, KB Financial Group expressed support for mandatory climate-related disclosure, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the accuracy of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data.
NH-Amundi Asset Management, a subsidiary of NongHyup Financial Group, voiced strong support for ambitious climate-related reporting standards under the KSSB. It highlighted the need to expand climate-related disclosures to include scope 3 emissions and to introduce quarterly reporting requirements.
The Korea National Pension Service also strongly supported mandatory corporate climate-related disclosure, calling for accelerated implementation of the policy and the inclusion of scope 3 emissions. It further recommended a phased approach to account for differences in companies’ capacity to comply with new requirements.
Hana Financial Group, Woori Financial Group, the Korea Federation of Banks, and the Korea Financial Investment Association expressed general support for climate-related disclosure but have not taken clear positions on regulatory implementation of the policy.
Shinhan Financial Group and the General Insurance Association of Korea supported the KSSB’s climate-related disclosure framework but argued that the Scope 3 emissions disclosure requirement should be delayed or removed.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has taken a more oppositional stance than the country’s financial sector, despite the membership of several of these financial groups in the association. In its policy engagement activities, KCCI has consistently emphasized the need to ease regulatory burdens and weaken mandatory elements of the KSSB framework, advocating for reduced penalties, particularly for Scope 3 emissions.
During the May 2024 public consultation on the Korean Sustainability Disclosure Standards Draft, KCCI called for postponing the start of the KSSB regulations proposed by the FSC—from 2026 to 2028–2029—and for removing Scope 3 emissions from the mandatory disclosure requirements.
At an August 2024 National Assembly Policy Seminar, KCCI reiterated the challenges South Korean companies face in disclosing Scope 3 emissions.
Most recently, in an October 2025 seminar co-hosted by the KSSB and KAI, KCCI advocated for measures to reduce the regulatory burden for companies, including safe harbor provisions to mitigate liability for errors in transition plans, scenario analyses, and scope 3 emissions reporting, which are key disclosure requirements under the KSSB's climate-related disclosure standards that such measures would ultimately weaken.
Given the divergence between financial institutions’ generally supportive stance on KSSB’s climate-related disclosure standards and KCCI’s advocacy against more ambitious reporting requirements, financial groups and other members of KCCI may wish to:
Engage the association directly to understand how its policy positions are developed and how member perspectives are incorporated into the association’s positions towards the policy.
Where members feel their views are not adequately reflected, consider issuing an independent statement — including publicly — to ensure policymakers and the KSSB receive an accurate signal of the financial sector’s position on climate-related disclosure.