Woori Bank Begins Voluntary Compensation Adjustment for DLF

For German DLF Loss Customers and UK DLF Early Redemption Customers

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Woori Bank announced on the 15th that it will begin voluntary compensation for investors who did not go through the Financial Supervisory Service's (FSS) dispute resolution process regarding losses from overseas interest rate-linked derivative-linked funds (DLF).

According to the financial sector and financial authorities, Woori Bank received the voluntary compensation guidelines from the FSS yesterday. On the 5th of last month, the FSS Dispute Resolution Committee made compensation decisions on six representative cases, and for the remaining dispute resolutions, it instructed the banks to proceed with voluntary adjustments.

Earlier this year, Woori Bank formed a DLF Settlement Adjustment Committee, completed fact-finding investigations targeting customers and salespersons, and received preliminary reviews from multiple law firms to ensure fairness. The FSS's review opinion on this was delivered yesterday.

The DLF Settlement Adjustment Committee was established to set reasonable settlement standards related to DLF financial dispute resolution and to facilitate smooth customer agreements. It consists of seven members, including external experts, the WM Group Head, the Compliance Officer, and the Head of the Financial Consumer Protection Center.

Following several statements by Sohn Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group, expressing a strong willingness for prompt compensation, Woori Bank decided at the board meeting held on the same day to proceed with voluntary compensation and to quickly initiate the compensation process through its branches.

The voluntary compensation targets are approximately 600 customers who have confirmed losses after subscribing to the German DLF and those who terminated the UK DLF early and confirmed losses.

The compensation ratio will be adjusted based on the 55% standard set by the Dispute Resolution Committee last month, with differential payments depending on factors such as compliance with sales procedures and past investment experience.

Customers who receive the compensation ratio through branches can decide whether to accept it and submit a consent form to receive immediate payment.

All six representative cases decided last month were accepted by investors, and since the compensation ratios were set higher than before and banks also decided to accept them, the financial sector views that accepting the voluntary compensation plan is more advantageous than litigation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.