In October 2008, the Korean Government proposed the significant amendments to the Korean Bank Act, the major contents of which contain the expansion of a bank's business scope and the improvements of its corporate governance. The proposed bill was submitted to the National Assembly in December 2008 and proclaimed on May, 2010 by the Government, and the amended Bank Act came into effective on November 18, 2010. The main contents of the 2010 amendments to the Bank Act are as follows: first, in order to expand the scope of the concurrent business and ancillary business of a bank, the amendments allow a bank to file a prior report to the regulatory authorities regarding its considered concurrent activities, deviating from a prior authorization requirement, and as well to file a prior report to the supervisory authorities for engaging the ancillary activities, which are prescribed in the Bank Act and the regulations thereunder comprehensively; second, the 2010 amendments introduce various measures for improving the corporate governance of a bank, such as strengthening the independence of the board of directors, enhancing the independence and specialization of the audit committee, and implementing and disclosing the internal 'corporate governance best practices' for the purpose of market discipline; third, the 2010 amendments seek to deregulate the asset management restrictions, such as abolishing the prohibition of making loans for the use of political funds, and repealing the prohibition of lending in excess of 20% of a specific company's total shares as a collateral (but only subject to filing a post report); fourth, the establishment of an overseas subsidiary or branch no more requires a 'prior consultation' with the regulator, only requires filing a prior report in certain cases or filing a post report in others; fifth, a foreign bank no longer needs to obtain an authorization from the Korean regulator in setting up its representative office in Korea, but only is required to file a prior report, and its closure now requires filing of a post report, instead of the previous prior reporting requirement; sixth, in order to promote the protection of bank consumers, the amendments add into the Bank Act the express provisions such as the prohibition of the 'unfair business conducts' and the standards and procedures for advertisement of bank products. Although the above described measures are generally assessed to be desirable in terms of the enhancement of a bank's competitiveness, the following tasks need to be further considered: first, the 'domestic or foreign exchange business,' which is interpreted to be 'payment and settlement business' or 'fund transfer business,' should be categorized as the definition of "banking business" of the Bank Act, so that such business should be legally regarded as one of a bank's core business, which requires a license for engaging in such activities, in addition to the current core businesses of deposit-taking business and lending business; second, since it is not clear whether a bank should retain a standing member of the audit committee under the current Bank Act, the provisions for such requirements should be added in the Bank Act; third, a regulator's formal position regarding whether a bank is permitted to have a 'non-standing director' in the board of director should be clearly expressed; finally, the provisions exempting the certain requirements for acquiring bank voting shares above the certain ceiling to become a major shareholder of a bank should be repealed.