Im Jong-ryong and Cho Byung-kyu Targeted by Lee Bok-hyun: "Someone Must Take Responsibility for Delayed Reporting of Unfair Loans"

On the 25th, Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, mentioned the possibility of responsibility for current Chairman Lim Jong-ryong and President Cho Byung-kyu of Woori Bank in relation to the improper loan case involving relatives of former Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung.

Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, is attending and speaking at the Securities Company CEO Meeting held on the 3rd at the Korea Financial Investment Association in Yeouido, Seoul. At the meeting, solutions for real estate PF and major issues in the securities industry were discussed. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

Governor Lee appeared on KBS's 'Sunday Diagnosis' that day and, when asked whether Chairman Lim and President Cho could also face punishment and sanctions regarding the improper loan case, stated, "Based on what is currently visible, it is unclear who the subjects will be, but someone must clearly take responsibility for failing to report in a timely manner as required by law."

He added, "Since a large amount of funds was supplied to a company operated by very close relatives of former Chairman Sohn Tae-seung, it is difficult to believe that the bank's internal decision-making process was unaware of this at a common-sense level," and judged, "It is believed that after the new chairman and president took office, the incident was reported to management through internal audits within the bank."

He particularly noted, "More than a year has passed under the new financial group chairman and president system, yet the way the situation is being handled repeats past bad practices, which raises strong concerns," and said, "Rather than viewing Woori Financial Group and Woori Bank with trust, there is a need to investigate the truth through inspections under the assumption that things might be concealed."

Governor Lee pointed out, "Upon verification, it was confirmed that by around last fall, executives including the current bank president had already received reports on the improper loans related to the former chairman. Even the financial holding company appears to have been informed no later than March of this year," and criticized, "It is utterly incomprehensible that the handling of the matter could lead to misunderstandings that the former chairman's illegal acts were being concealed."

He also stated, "Beyond legal obligations, there have been discussions on governance issues, improvement plans to change the autocratic financial group chairman system, and even various discussions on accountability structures, during which the responsible parties should have been strictly sanctioned," and criticized, "The procedures were retrospectively understood as being handled only after waiting for the head of the division that executed the improper loans to resign."

Governor Lee emphasized, "Chairmen and presidents, who should fundamentally possess a level of ethical awareness comparable to public officials in terms of ethics and corporate culture, have acted in ways that are difficult for the public to accept. It is time to review what institutional measures the supervisory authorities can take."