Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association Executives' Average Annual Salary '520 Million Won'

Annual Salary Gap 4.5 Times Between Regular Employees
Reappointment Rate of Chairpersons Also Approaching 70%

The average annual salary of executives at the Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association, where a bank run (massive withdrawal of deposits) and a series of embezzlement, breach of trust, and fraud by executives and employees occurred, was found to be 520 million KRW, surpassing the level of executives at general banks. Additionally, the reappointment rate of the Central Association chairman also approached 70%.

According to data received on the 16th by Representative Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association, the average annual salary of full-time executives at the Central Association steadily increased from 415.99 million KRW in 2020 to 529.10 million KRW last year. Their average annual salary over the past 10 years (450 million KRW) is about 10% higher than the average annual salary of general bank executives (410 million KRW). During the same period, the gap with the average salary of Central Association employees widened from about 3.6 times to 4.5 times.

On July 6th, officials are posting notices related to the protection of savings and deposits at the MG Saemaeul Geumgo Gyeonghuigung Branch in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

The reappointment rate, which indicates the proportion of individuals who previously served as chairman being reappointed, was also found to have steadily increased. The chairman reappointment rates were 31.9% in 2017, 34.4% in 2018, 42.3% in 2019, 47.7% in 2020, 41.1% in 2021, and 49.7% last year, continuing to rise to 69.9% as of August this year.

From 2013 to August this year, the average reappointment rate over the past 10 years was 46.2%, meaning that out of 3,467 chairmen appointed during this period, 1,600 served as chairman two or more times. The consecutive reappointment rate was also 38.8% (1,345 people), and the rate of three consecutive reappointments was 13.5% (469 people).

Representative Yong stated, "It is necessary to amend laws to limit the number of reappointments and consecutive appointments of Central Association executives and to decide executives' salaries at the general meeting of members, similar to the credit unions in the same mutual finance sector." She added, "Some or all executive duties should be delegated to full-time directors to reduce their authority, and an executive evaluation system should be established."

Meanwhile, from 2017 to August this year, there have been 95 financial incidents involving embezzlement, breach of trust, fraud, and solicitation committed by Saemaeul Geumgo executives and employees, with damages amounting to 64.388 billion KRW. Among these, embezzlement cases were the most frequent with 67 incidents, followed by breach of trust (15 cases), fraud (8 cases), and solicitation (5 cases). This year alone, Saemaeul Geumgo experienced a total of 8 financial incidents, including 5 embezzlement and 3 breach of trust cases.