South Korea's financial watchdog said Friday it will pay special heed to malpractices by companies here in their accounting of derivative products and others.

It's one of four "key issues" to be closely monitored by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) in the accounting and audit sector next year.

The FSS plans to place an emphasis on the four fields, instead of conducting a "full-scope" inspection of corporate financial statements.

The other ones include the evaluation of unlisted shares and other nonmarketable assets and the credibility of regulatory filings on new business contracts.

The FSS will also focus on whether companies do fair accounting of the return and exchange of products sold.

 "We have selected the four main issues based on this year's most revealed cases," an FSS official said. "We plan to induce firms with relevant issues to be prudent in preparing and creating balance sheets." (Yonhap)