崔智慧

Overview

Jihye Choi focuses her practice primarily on advising clients on responding to financial regulations, financial institution inspections, and capital market investigations, obtaining approvals and permits for financial institutions, and handling finance-related lawsuits. Ms. Choi has accumulated a wide range of legal practice experience on financial regulation, particularly during her service for the Deliberation Assistance Team of the Office of the Regulatory Reform and Legal Affairs Officer of the Financial Services Commission (FSC)—where she not only conducted legal reviews on agenda items concerning sanctions against violations of financial laws and assisted the FSC's Agenda Review Subcommittee and the Securities and Futures Commission in going through their respective deliberation and decision-making procedures, but also participated in other tasks, including enacting, amending, improving the institutional systems for, and interpreting financial laws.

Ms. Choi graduated from Yonsei University's Department of Public Administration and Yonsei University School of Law (5th class) and was admitted to the Korean Bar. Then, she performed corporate advisory and litigation works at Sigong Law P.C. and gained practical experience on financial regulation while serving as a member of the Deliberation Assistance Team of the FSC's Office of the Regulatory Reform and Legal Affairs Officer. Since 2024, she has been an attorney of Bae, Kim & Lee LLC.

Related Practices

Representative Experience

2024-Present Bae, Kim & Lee LLC

2020-2024 Deliberation Assistance Team, Office of the Regulatory Reform and Legal Affairs Officer, Financial Services Commission

2016-2020 Sigong Law P.C.

Representative Matters

Advised on the response to the Financial Services Commission's disciplinary proceedings against Korea Investment & Securities, Eugene Investment & Securities, and Kyobo Securities in connection with their improper sales practices related to bond-type wrap accounts and trusts

Advised on the response to the Financial Services Commission's disciplinary proceedings concerning Korea Investment & Securities' misselling of private funds

Advised on the merger between Hanwha General Insurance and Carrot General Insurance

Advised KB Securities on the registration of its general private collective investment business

Advised a comprehensive financial investment business entity on its application for designation as an Integrated Management Account (IMA)

Advised Hana Securities on its licensing application for short-term financial business

Advised KB Kookmin Bank on its response to the imposition of an administrative fine under the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers in relation to its Hong Kong H-Index linked ELS products

Advised Hana Financial Group, Hana Bank, Toss Bank, and K Bank, as well as other domestic financial holding companies, commercial banks, and internet-only banks, on their projects to implement responsibility structure frameworks

Advised foreign banks, including JP Morgan Chase Bank, BNP Paribas, and Société Générale, on their projects to implement responsibility structure frameworks

Advised on the response to the imposition of an administrative fine for violations of short-selling regulations

Represented virtual asset exchanges, Coinone, Korbit, and Streami, in an injunction proceeding seeking suspension of the decision to discontinue trading support for WEMIX coins, resulting in dismissal of the injunction request

Advised Coinone on its response to the Financial Supervisory Service's first on-site inspection

Advised the Bank of Korea on the institutionalization of deposit-token-based payment services under its central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative

Dealt with agenda items concerning incomplete sale of private equity funds, unjust solicitation, and breach of the duty to establish internal control standards

Dealt with agenda items concerning unfair trade practices under the financial market law (including the acts of making an illegal transaction, disturbing the market order, and short-selling shares)

Dealt with agenda items concerning violations of financial laws, including the financial consumers protection law, credit information law, and banking law

Education

2016 Yonsei University Law School (J.D.)

2013 Yonsei University (B.A.)

Qualifications

2016 Korea