Policy failure

Loose regulation triggers savings bank fiasco

By Kim Tae-jong

Financial authorities suspended the business operations of four savings banks Sunday, citing their poor financial soundness, in a third and last effort to revamp the troubled secondary banking sector.

The decision for the suspension was a critical measure to stop the savings banks collapsing, but many people are now raising a fundamental question ― why didn’t financial regulators take preventive action before they entered the terminal stage?

The four banks ― Solomon, Mirae, Korea and Hanju ― were slapped with six-month business suspensions. This means the