Financial Supervisory Service Delays Announcement of Spicy Inspection Results for Woori Financial to February

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced on the 8th that it will postpone the announcement of the 'Inspection Results of Major Financial Holding Companies and Banks' to early February.

The FSS conducted inspections targeting three major holding companies, including Woori Financial Group, which faced allegations of improper loans involving the chairman's relatives last year, as well as KB Financial Group and NH Nonghyup Financial Group. The announcement of the inspection results was originally scheduled for January.

The FSS explained, "The announcement timing was adjusted to early February due to the National Assembly's investigation into the insurrection, government work report schedules, and the designation of temporary holidays."

Yonhap News

Earlier, on the afternoon of November 28 last year, FSS Governor Lee Bok-hyun met with reporters immediately after a meeting with the chairpersons of bank holding company boards held at the Korea Federation of Banks in Jung-gu, Seoul. He stated, "We confirmed that illegal loans similar to those made by former Chairman Sohn Tae-seung also occurred during the tenures of current Chairman Lim Jong-ryong and current President Cho Byung-kyu," adding, "We will examine whether such illegal loans were reported to the board of directors, whether the board's control functions operated, and if not, why they did not."

After the inspection, he also criticized, "Woori Financial Group has revealed enormous problems related to factionalism." On the morning of the 20th of last month, after a meeting with construction industry and real estate market experts held at the Housing Construction Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, Governor Lee told reporters, "To be honest, under the current system of Chairman Lim Jong-ryong and President Cho Byung-kyu, I do not believe that factionalism has been corrected," and added, "This is not an individual issue but a financial group issue, and we will include this in the inspection and post-inspection measures."

Additionally, on the same day, Governor Lee emphasized, "I thought it was appropriate to announce the results in January to properly deliver a 'spicy' message, so I postponed the announcement of the inspection results of financial holding companies and banks," and stressed, "We extracted common concerns from the inspections of the three major holding companies: Woori Financial Group, KB Financial Group, and NH Nonghyup Financial Group."

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