Toss Bank CEO Lee faces internal control scrutiny in second term
Toss Bank CEO Lee Eun-mi / Courtesy of Toss Bank
Toss Bank CEO Lee Eun-mi has effectively secured a second term, buoyed by the internet-only lender’s rapid growth, but a series of internal control lapses, including a recent foreign exchange system error, have put her leadership under scrutiny, industry officials said Thursday.
According to provisional figures, the bank reported a net profit of approximately 101.9 billion won ($69 million) for last year, marking its best annual result so far. The company, which turned its first annual profit in 2024, has also built momentum with a growing customer base of 13.7 million as of the third quarter.
On the back of these gains, Lee is set to remain at the helm. Her reappointment is expected to be finalized at the regular shareholders’ meeting scheduled for March 31.
Toss Bank’s growth narrative, however, has recently been overshadowed by a system malfunction in its currency exchange service.
The bank’s app mistakenly displayed an exchange rate of 472 won per 100 yen — about half the correct rate — between 7:29 p.m. and 7:36 p.m. on Tuesday.
During the seven-minute window, transactions worth an estimated 20 billion won were processed at the erroneous rate, potentially leaving the bank with losses amounting to 10 billion won.
The bank said the affected transactions would be corrected or canceled in accordance with the Electronic Financial Transactions Act and the bank’s own service terms.
The latest incident follows another internal control failure in May last year, when a manager-level employee in the bank’s finance division was found to have embezzled around 2.8 billion won. The wrongdoing was reportedly discovered through an internal review system about two weeks after it occurred.
Concerns have also been raised about consumer protection practices. In the Financial Supervisory Service’s most recent evaluation of financial consumer protection systems, Toss Bank was given a “poor” rating. The financial watchdog cited issues such as delays in canceling overseas card payments and insufficient personnel dedicated to consumer protection.
Toss Bank headquarters in Gangnam District, Seoul / Newsis
Lee previously served as chief financial officer at global financial institutions including Standard Chartered and HSBC, where she built a reputation for emphasizing internal governance, cybersecurity and risk management.
Nevertheless, the recent incidents at Toss Bank have prompted questions about the effectiveness of the bank’s internal control framework, making governance reforms a central challenge for her second term.
The exchange rate error could also ignite debate over how the bank handles profits earned by customers during the glitch. Any attempt to forcibly reclaim those gains could draw criticism that the bank is transferring responsibility for its own mistake onto users, potentially complicating efforts to rebuild trust.
Market watchers are not ruling out the possibility of the situation influencing Toss Bank’s broader business strategy.
The bank plans to expand into corporate lending and enter the highly competitive home mortgage market this year. If operational glitches and governance concerns persist during this expansion phase, regulators could step up supervisory scrutiny.
“One of the characteristics of Toss Bank, as a relatively new player, has been its focus on rapid growth,” said a banking industry official. “But frequent personnel turnover among experienced hires has made it harder to stabilize the organization. As past cases demonstrate, internal control risks remain a tangible issue.”