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Thu, February 3, 2022 | 10:14
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Hana Financial clashes with financial authorities
Posted : 2018-03-14 10:46
Updated : 2018-03-14 17:52
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By Kim Yoo-chul

Does Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tae still think the way he is being treated by the financial authorities these days is unfair?

This is a question that the group chairman is sure to respond to as the country's top two financial authorities have begun investigating the group and flagship affiliates of KEB Hana Bank over growing allegations of group-wide involvement in hiring irregularities.

Kim is the leader of Hana Financial, the country's top-tier banking group with total assets reaching over 363 trillion won by the third quarter of last year.

President Moon Jae-in accepted an offer of resignation submitted by the head of the Financial Supervisory Services (FSS) Choe Heung-sik after Choe was alleged to have asked Hana Financial to illegally hire the son of a colleague in 2013.

Choe said it was his responsibility to step down to ensure the impartiality of the FSS, which has the full authority to investigate employment irregularities in the financial sector.

This could be the biggest blow for the Hana chairman whose controversial third-term as head of the banking group just came into effect a few months earlier.

Hana chairman Kim won his bid for the top position for the third time, extending his term to 2021, despite repeated objections from the Financial Services Commission, one of the two financial regulators here.

At that time, the FSC questioned the qualifications of Kim as the regulator didn't think he was the right person to carry out corporate governance restructuring within the banking group given his involvement in decisions to extend loans for a local startup via KEB Hana Bank, which was also controversial.

"But as far as I know, the former FSS chief Choe backed up the Hana chairman's ambitious bid, unsettling FSC," said an official at the bank. From 2012 until 2014, Choe was the president of Hana Financial Group, which owns KEB Hana Bank, Korea's biggest lender.

Now, the FSC Chairman Choi Jong-ku is eyeing Kim, again, as the FSC will be teaming up with the FSS to uncover any hiring irregularities in the banking group.

"Our position is very simple. We will investigate. No timeframe has been set. We will continue until the investigation is over," Choi said, adding the regulator expects to get off-the-record reports from Hana insiders.

In a statement, the FSS said it will investigate Hana Financial over the issue for about two weeks from March 13 targeting employees who were hired in 2013.

"The results of the findings will be reported to auditors only. The FSC and FSS plan to partner with prosecutors, if necessary," the FSS said in the statement without elaborating.

Earlier, the two regulators had gone back on their threats to Hana Financial by temporarily halting their inspection of KEB Hana as its new leadership had been picked and put into place.



Emailyckim@ktimes.com Article ListMore articles by this reporter



 
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