22 cases of irregularity confirmed in Shinhan hiring

By Yoon Ja-young

The financial regulator confirmed some hiring irregularities at Shinhan Financial Group, including special favor given to children of its executives in recruitment. Its former top executives as well as ranking officials and influential politicians also lobbied it to hire candidates who had a connection with them.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Friday that it found a total of 22 irregularities in Shinhan's recruitment process following a month-long probe. It had been probing Shinhan Bank as well as its credit card, capital and life insurance businesses regarding recruitment. Shinhan Bank was involved in 12 irregularities, while the regulator found four problematic cases in the credit card business and six in the life insurance arm.

The probe follows allegations of hiring irregularities at a number of banks including KEB Hana, Woori and Kookmin, which triggered much anger among young jobseekers and their families amid a record-high youth unemployment. While banks have become one of the most preferred workplaces among young jobseekers thanks to high salaries and job stability, it turns out that they gave special favors to job applicants who have ties with bank executives, top-tier customers, politicians, and ranking government officials.

The financial regulator also found that Shinhan violated laws in recruitment. Shinhan Card, for instance, publicly announced that there will be no restriction on age, but it turned out that it automatically dropped candidates aged over 33. Shinhan Card also set the ratio of males and females to be hired to seven to three, from the initial stage of resume screening through the interview and the final stage of hiring.

In the case of Shinhan Bank, it gave special favor to jobseekers related with former top executives, children of a media owner, or nephew of a former ranking government official. While these candidates either fell short of its internal resume screening standards such as maximum age or got the poorest evaluation during an interview, they were all hired by the bank. They were recommended by influential figures such as politicians, FSS officials or executives.

Children of Shinhan executives also got hired, despite low GPAs that fell short of the resume screening standards or poor performance at the interview.

At Shinhan Card, a child of the group executive passed the screening despite a substandard resume and successfully got a job at Shinhan though some interviewers had pointed to the interviewee's “strange attitude” and “unorganized presentation.”

The financial regulator said that it will refer the cases to the prosecution for further investigation.