By Oh Young-jin
Staff Reporter
Kookmin Bank's trade union blames upper management and financial authorities for the apparent suicide of a mid-level manager who was in charge of its online system development.
In its newsletter for members, the union claims, "The overall problems of the bank's management; the pressure put on the manager identified by his family name, Roh; and the Financial Supervisory Service's (FSS) audit led to the suicide."
Roh was found dead last week apparently after jumping to his death from a Han River bridge. The union based its conclusion on a survey by its appointed team of inspectors which looked into reasons for the suicide.
"Roh was under a great amount of pressure for being behind schedule with the new online system," the union claimed.
The union demanded that the bank's head, Kang Chung-won, make an immediate apology and come up with steps aimed at preventing a recurrence. It threatened to take action unless the bank takes appropriate steps to address its demands.
The newsletter said that the FSS also played a role in Roh's death, pointing out that its intrusive and prolonged investigation into the bank caused a further delay in the computer development schedule.
Despite FSS claims that Roh was excluded from the list of bank officials who were scrutinized during its inspection, the union said that Roh was repeatedly called in for questioning, with each session lasting three or four hours.
From accounts by his colleagues, "Roh complained to his superiors that the questionings prevented him from completing crucial tests to ferret out glitches and debug the system.
The union said that, although there was no way of knowing whether Roh was abused in any way during FSS questioning, some bank officials who were subjected to interrogation, claimed that they had been verbally abused.
However, the union said that the bank is not free from blame for the death, pointing out that he had frequently worked all night without proper rest for the past two years while working on the new system.
Although the FSS explained that it was a routine part of its supervision, it is widely believed the inspections into the bank were triggered by Kang's attempt to take over its holding firm as chairman.
This sparked a controversy that the government had interfered with the bank's operations.
Meanwhile, the FSS has dispatched a team of four officials for a two-week inspection into disparities found in bank accounts.
There were rumors that the discrepancies amounted to billions of dollars, sending the bank's share prices into a downward spiral.
Kookmin has been losing steam in its business, being passed by its competing banks in terms of assets and profits. The bank once tried to take over Korea Exchange Bank from
Lone Star, the Dallas-based private equity fund, but the deal was not completed.