Supreme Court: Bank Branch Manager Who Caused Losses Due to Faulty Loans Must Recalculate Compensation Fee

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has ruled that the bank's decision to impose a compensation payment of over 130 million won on a branch manager who caused losses to the bank due to non-performing loans should be reconsidered. The court stated that the compensation amount must be recalculated as it was determined without considering the actual scale of the bank's losses.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Noh Tae-ak) announced on the 28th that it overturned the appellate court's partial ruling in favor of Mr. A in his lawsuit against Woori Bank seeking nullification of his dismissal and confirmation of non-existence of compensation debt, and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court.

The court found that the appellate court did not consider the actual damages caused by the loans when calculating the compensation amount. Instead, it calculated the compensation based solely on Woori Bank's disciplinary and compensation standards, setting the maximum compensation limit at 300 million won.

The court pointed out, "Woori Bank imposed the maximum compensation limit of 300 million won according to the company's 'Disciplinary Adjustment Standards' and 'Non-performing Loan Compensation Standards' because the total amount of non-performing loans exceeded 300 million won, which is unrelated to the contribution ratio of each non-performing loan amount."

Mr. A worked as a branch manager at a branch of Woori Bank from 2014 and was disciplined by the bank for being involved in the so-called 'Yeouido Financial Center Fraudulent Loan Case.'

The bank investigated and concluded that Mr. A was involved with a broker organization handling fraudulent loans, and imposed a disciplinary action of six months suspension and a compensation payment of 1.7531 billion won. Other disciplinary reasons included inadequate collateral verification, poor credit screening, and private monetary lending.

Mr. A argued that those known as brokers were actually customers, and that he followed regulations when handling loans and was unaware of the fraudulent case. He claimed that collateral was properly verified when handling loans for manufacturing companies and filed a lawsuit contesting the disciplinary and compensation decisions.

The first trial court recognized some of Mr. A's disciplinary reasons, dismissed his claim against the suspension, but accepted his argument regarding the compensation payment.

On the other hand, the appellate court recognized a compensation debt of over 130 million won, stating that Mr. A failed to verify the installation of machinery, which was collateral, when providing loans to manufacturing companies.

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