"4 Major Commercial Banks Executives' Performance Bonuses Total 108.3 Billion Won Celebration"

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] It has been confirmed that executives of the four major commercial banks?KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana?received a total of 108.3 billion KRW in performance bonuses over the past three years. The average performance bonus per person was about 100 million KRW. Criticism has arisen that banks held a "performance bonus feast" while ordinary citizens struggled to repay loans due to rising interest rates.

According to data received on the 3rd from the Financial Supervisory Service by the office of Kim Jong-min, a member of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 1,047 executives received performance bonuses from the four major commercial banks over the three years from 2020 to last May.

By bank, Woori Bank paid the highest amount of performance bonuses at 34.74 billion KRW, followed by Kookmin Bank with 29.9 billion KRW, Shinhan Bank with 25.4 billion KRW, and Hana Bank with 18.3 billion KRW. The number of executives who received performance bonuses was 455 at Woori Bank, 238 at Shinhan Bank, 218 at Kookmin Bank, and 136 at Hana Bank.

The highest individual performance bonus was paid by Kookmin Bank. In 2020, one executive at Kookmin Bank received a performance bonus of 1.2 billion KRW. During the same period, the maximum performance bonuses received by executives were 610 million KRW at Woori Bank, 500 million KRW at Hana Bank, and 311 million KRW at Shinhan Bank, respectively.

During the period, the weighted average interest rates on new loans at some commercial banks steadily increased. Representative Kim pointed out that the interest rate hikes were largest at Kookmin Bank and Woori Bank. Comparing Kookmin Bank’s interest rates from 2020 to last May, the fixed interest rate on unsecured loans rose from 3.27% to 4.72%, and the variable interest rate on unsecured loans increased from 2.75% to 5.33%. The fixed interest rate on mortgage loans also rose from 1.84% to 2.52%, and the variable rate increased from 2.5% to 3.71%. Woori Bank showed a similar trend.

Representative Kim said, "While ordinary citizens are struggling to repay interest due to rising loan interest rates, it is questionable whether annual performance bonuses exceeding 1 billion KRW meet the public’s expectations. In this difficult economic situation, financial authorities must actively intervene to resolve the interest rate gap between deposits and loans, and the National Assembly will also strive to improve related laws and systems."

Meanwhile, a Woori Bank official explained, "The figures provided to the representative’s office include long-term performance bonuses paid to retired executives. Excluding these, and calculated by the same standards as other banks, 17.6 billion KRW was paid to 221 executives during the period, with the maximum performance bonus being 290 million KRW."

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