South Korea’s biggest institutional investor National Pension Service (NPS) is seeking to hold a fund management committee meeting on a monthly basis and add more financial experts to its members in a move to enhance its independence from political influence and investment decision-making role.

According to multiple sources from the political circle and the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Friday, the country’s National Assembly is preparing to introduce a revised bill in October that will mandate the NPS’s fund management committee to have at least two standing members and meet every month on a regular basis.

Currently, the fund management committee, the highest governing body of the National pension Service Investment Management, is composed of 20 non-standing members and meets quarterly to review investment and set up investment plans.

As six of its fund management committee members are ex-officio government members and only two are pension scheme experts, the NPS has been often under criticism for being easily swayed by political influence.

Lately, the country’s political scandal involving now-impeached, former President Park Geun-Hye and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil again raised question about political neutrality of the state-run pension operator with nearly 600 trillion won ($535.2 billion) assets under management, which is also the world’s third largest pension fund. During the prosecutor’s probes in the unprecedented political scandal, the NPS and its chief were charged for approving the merger of Samsung Group’s two affiliates in 2015 under influence of the presidential office.

The upcoming reform is, however, expected to bolster the independence of the investment governing body, benchmarking the Bank of Korea’s monetary policy committee that is highly independent organization led by BOK Governor, according to sources.

Under the revision, newly added standing members are expected to play a critical role in monitoring fund management around the clock to prevent government officials, including health and welfare minister, NPS chairman and head of NPS Investment Management from wielding power over the governing body.

Read full news here: Pulse