Four Hana Bank Executives Sanctioned for Violating the Real Name Financial Transaction Act

FSS Uploads Only 4 Hana Bank Employees Who Shared Customer Information with Law Firm

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] As the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has begun sanctions against Hana Bank for handing over financial transaction information of about 1,000 customers of overseas interest rate-linked derivative-linked funds (DLF) to a law firm, it is reported that four Hana Bank employees have been targeted for sanctions.

According to financial authorities and the financial sector on the 8th, the FSS plans to soon submit the case of Hana Bank’s violation of the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions and Confidentiality (Real Name Financial Transactions Act) to the Sanctions Review Committee.

According to the FSS, Hana Bank handed over information of about 1,000 DLF customers (1,936 accounts) to a law firm with which it had a legal advisory contract in August last year. The FSS, which tentatively concluded this was a violation of the Real Name Financial Transactions Act, reportedly included a total of four employees as subjects of sanctions: three from Hana Bank’s investment products department (now IPS Headquarters) and one from another department.

Hana Bank explained that the information was provided for legal advice purposes in preparation for customer complaints. A Hana Bank official stated, “We judged that it fell under the case where customer consent is not required according to Article 4, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 5 of the Real Name Financial Transactions Act, so we provided the information,” and added, “The financial transaction information was used only for legal consultation purposes.” The official also said, “We gave the same explanation to the FSS during the DLF inspection.”

Accordingly, since a comprehensive legal advisory contract was in place, a fierce legal dispute is expected to unfold over the FSS sanctions.

Meanwhile, the results of the injunction application to suspend the execution of heavy sanctions (disciplinary warning) imposed by financial authorities on Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Ham Young-joo (former Hana Bank CEO) and others for causing large principal losses to customers through DLF will be decided on the 18th at the Seoul Administrative Court. Not only Vice Chairman Ham but also two executives from the asset management (WM) division at the time, as well as Hana Bank?which was fined 16.78 billion KRW and suspended from selling new private equity funds for six months?have filed injunction applications to suspend execution. It is widely expected that the injunction will be granted, similar to the case with Woori Bank.

A financial sector official predicted, “After the injunction is granted, the legitimacy of the sanctions will be contested through administrative litigation, which will take at least two to three years.”

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