By Na Jeong-ju
Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Choi Soo-hyun will meet bank CEOs today to call for countermeasures against crimes involving bank employees, the regulator said Monday.
The meeting follows massive corruption and data theft cases that have hit the Korean banking sector one after another.
An FSS official said Choi will give a wake-up call to the CEOs.
"At the meeting, Choi will express his resolve to strongly punish bank employees involved as well as the CEOs who fail to properly monitor them," the official said. "Choi will also tell the banks to strengthen ethical standards for employees and introduce measures aimed at eliminating factionalism, which is widespread in the local banking industry."
Participants will include CEOs of all major commercial banks, including Shinhan, KB Kookmin and Hana, as well as the Korean units of Citibank and Standard Chartered.
Earlier on Monday, Choi lamented that Korean banks are losing public trust.
"We need to take fundamental measures to address crimes committed by bankers and consumer data leaks," he said during a weekly meeting with senior FSS officials. "This is the only way to restore public trust. As regulators, we must ask ourselves if we are doing our job properly."
The FSS official said there will be the "strongest possible" punishment for bank employees involved in irregularities, as well as the executives of their banks.
Many banks, including KB Kookmin, NH NongHyup, Citibank Korea and SC Bank Korea, and card firms are being investigated concerning recent consumer data leaks, which affected more than 20 million clients.
There also have been a series of fraud cases involving bank officials. These cases have brought their monitoring systems into question.
The FSS itself has also been blamed for poor monitoring of financial market players.
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| Choi Soo-hyun, Financial Supervisory Service governor |
The meeting follows massive corruption and data theft cases that have hit the Korean banking sector one after another.
An FSS official said Choi will give a wake-up call to the CEOs.
"At the meeting, Choi will express his resolve to strongly punish bank employees involved as well as the CEOs who fail to properly monitor them," the official said. "Choi will also tell the banks to strengthen ethical standards for employees and introduce measures aimed at eliminating factionalism, which is widespread in the local banking industry."
Participants will include CEOs of all major commercial banks, including Shinhan, KB Kookmin and Hana, as well as the Korean units of Citibank and Standard Chartered.
Earlier on Monday, Choi lamented that Korean banks are losing public trust.
"We need to take fundamental measures to address crimes committed by bankers and consumer data leaks," he said during a weekly meeting with senior FSS officials. "This is the only way to restore public trust. As regulators, we must ask ourselves if we are doing our job properly."
The FSS official said there will be the "strongest possible" punishment for bank employees involved in irregularities, as well as the executives of their banks.
Many banks, including KB Kookmin, NH NongHyup, Citibank Korea and SC Bank Korea, and card firms are being investigated concerning recent consumer data leaks, which affected more than 20 million clients.
There also have been a series of fraud cases involving bank officials. These cases have brought their monitoring systems into question.
The FSS itself has also been blamed for poor monitoring of financial market players.
