The head of South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) visited China last week for the first time in six years and met with his Chinese counterpart, sources said Thursday.

Lee Bok-hyun met with Li Yunze, head of China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration, on Aug. 31 and discussed improving financial cooperation between the two countries, according to the sources.

It marked the first time an FSS governor has visited China since 2017.

The visit came amid FSS’ ongoing investigation into alleged fund mismanagement cases involving Lime, Optimus and Discovery asset management firms where some illegal fund money is suspected to have been transferred to foreign countries.

“Money laundering in unfair transaction and illegal wiring cases here frequently involves China, so cooperation between financial authorities of South Korea and China is needed,” an official familiar with the matter said.

Last year, the FSS found that 84 financial companies conducted abnormal wiring of foreign currencies worth a total of US$12.2 billion but faced difficulties looking into cases where the money was sent to China.

Meanwhile, Lee also met with Liao Lin, President of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, during his trip and called for an expansion of the bank’s activities in South Korea.

Source: Yonhap News Agency