BNK Financial Group's executive recommendation committee (the committee) will soon finalize the long list, the first pool of candidates for the next chair. There were concerns that the selection of the next chair would be delayed due to political attacks by the Democratic Party of Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service's procedural criticisms, but the committee decided to proceed with the candidate selection as scheduled. However, the Democratic Party of Korea is still trying to shake the current Chair Bin Dae-in, so difficulties are expected in the chair appointment process.
According to the financial sector on the 31st, the BNK Financial committee decided to finalize a long list of around 10 candidates as early as the same day, or by early next week at the latest. The committee will use presentations and interview evaluations with the long-list candidates to select the final shortlist in December. It will then finalize the single nominee for the next chair through in-depth interviews.
The committee initially planned to finalize the first long list on the 16th. However, the Democratic Party of Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service pointed out problems with the candidate selection procedure, pushing back the schedule. On the 21st at a National Policy Committee audit, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Beom-kye said there were problems with BNK Financial's chair selection process, and Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin agreed, saying, "If necessary, we will correct the problems through ad hoc inspections." However, the Financial Supervisory Service is said to have not yet planned an ad hoc inspection of BNK Financial.
The BNK Financial committee responded to some claims of problems in the chair candidate selection process by saying, "It is being operated fairly and transparently in accordance with the Financial Supervisory Service's corporate governance best-practice guide," and added, "We will do our best to recommend the optimal CEO who understands the philosophy of a regional financial group and can lead the future stably."
A financial industry official in the Busan area said, "There was criticism that the chair candidate registration period overlapped with the Chuseok holidays, leaving little time to prepare application documents, but chair candidates have been preparing routinely, so there is no need to rush to submit documents."
While the controversy over the candidate selection procedure appears to be winding down, the Democratic Party of Korea is still carrying on political attacks against Chair Bin. Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers Min Hong-chul, Kim Jeong-ho, Kim Tae-seon, Kim Sang-uk and Huh Sung-moo from the South Gyeongsang region held a joint news conference on the 29th and argued, "The BNK Financial committee conducted the procedure behind closed doors and in haste, and operated a limited candidate registration period, thereby significantly lacking procedural transparency and fairness." The lawmakers claimed that Busan Bank provided a preferential loan to Deutsch Motors and that Chair Bin served on Yoon Suk-yeol's presidential transition committee. Busan Bank explained that the Deutsch Motors loan was a normal loan processed through lawful procedures. It was also confirmed that the claim about Chair Bin's transition committee activity was not true.