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South Korean President Moon Jae-in purchases a product by simply scanning a QR code during an event to promote easing regulations on IT firms and internet banking at Seoul City Hall on Aug. 7. (Blue House photo pool)
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Respondents also supported creating failsafe to limit chaelbol participation in banking
A recent survey has found strong public support in South Korea for a policy of easing regulations that prevent industrial capital from gaining control of commercial banks. The regulations would be relaxed by allowing IT firms to invest in internet banks. On Aug. 9, polling organization Realmeter released the results of a survey in which it asked respondents what they think about President Moon Jae-in’s plan to ease regulations to allow IT firms to invest in internet banks while creating a failsafe to limit chaebols’ participation in the banking business. In the survey, 53.7 percent of respondents said they think this is a good idea, compared with 23.6 percent who think it is a bad idea and 22.7 percent who aren’t sure. Support for the policy prevailed in all regions and age groups. In terms of party affiliation, more than half of supporters of the Democratic Party and the Justice Party approved of the policy, while more than half of Liberty Korea Party supporters held a negative view. The survey, which was conducted on 501 adults around the country on Aug. 8 at the behest of TBS, was 95 percent reliable with a ±4.4 point sample error. In related news, President Moon’s approval rating continues to slip, dropping below the 60 percent mark for the first time since his inauguration. In a survey of 1,507 adults around the country carried out by Realmeter from Aug. 6 to 8 and released on Aug. 9 (with a reliability of 95 percent and a sample error of ±2.5 points), 58 percent of respondents approved of Moon’s job performance in the second week of July, which was down 5.2 points from the week before. Negative assessments rose 5.4 points to 35.8 percent. This set a new low in the Realmeter survey findings, more than six months after the rating dipped to 60.5 percent during the debate about sending a unified inter-Korean team to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the fourth week of January. In terms of contributing factors, Realmeter said, “the news that Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Gyeong-su had received a summons from the special prosecutor over the Druking scandal appeared to be comparable to public dissatisfaction about the government’s reduction of the electricity bill.” In terms of support for political parties, the Democratic Party’s approval rating dropped by 2.7 percent from the week before to 40.1 percent, while the Liberty Korea Party rose 1.4 percent to 19 percent. The Justice Party was at 14.5 percent, the Bareunmirae Party at 5.3 percent and the Party for Democracy and Peace at 2.2 percent. Detailed information about public opinion surveys can be found at the homepage of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission. By Lee Kyung-mi, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
