South Korea’s Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has issued an administrative notice for revised consumer protection guidelines covering prepaid installment transactions, with a 20-day notice period running through Sept. 14. The proposal covers businesses such as funeral and travel service providers that collect advance payments for future services. Operators would have to establish internal guidelines and annual management plans, while balancing stability, liquidity and profitability so cash remains available to provide contracted services and issue refunds. Companies whose advance payments totaled at least 100 billion won at the end of the previous fiscal year would have to establish an Advance Payment Management Review Committee. The amount is approximately $72.1 million under the latest notice, compared with an earlier estimate of $72.4 million. The proposal would also require thorough reviews and external expert opinions for transactions involving controlling shareholders or related parties and investments in high-risk assets such as derivatives, virtual assets and leveraged financial products. The measures follow losses at Bumo Sarang, which invested 59.5 billion won in a leveraged ETF linked to the twice-daily return of Bitmine, an Ethereum-themed stock; its book value fell to 10.2 billion won as of the end of last year. The guidelines remain nonbinding recommendations without penalties for noncompliance, leaving mutual aid companies outside the stricter internal-control regime applied to banks, insurers and securities firms.