The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), which is conducting an on-site review of Coupang Pay, the payment gateway (PG) for Coupang where 33.7 million personal data records were leaked, is considering increasing dispatched personnel and either extending the review period or converting it into an investigation. The FSS began its on-site review of Coupang Pay on Dec. 2 and has already extended the deadline to Jan. 9.
According to the financial authorities on the 6th, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is considering dispatching additional personnel to Coupang Pay in addition to the one team already on-site. It is unusual for a review, rather than an investigation, to last more than a month. An investigation marks the beginning of procedures to formally supervise and sanction potential legal violations. An FSS official said, "We dispatched one team as with a typical case, but the process is being prolonged because cooperation from Coupang Pay has been slow."
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is under investigation into Coupang Pay and its lending subsidiary Coupang Financial. At Coupang Pay, which handles payment information, the FSS is looking into potential leaks of customers' credit information, while at Coupang Financial it is checking whether loan products sold by Coupang to merchants on the platform violated laws. The on-site review of Coupang Financial ended in December and is now moving to an investigation.
Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), met with reporters on the 5th and, regarding Coupang Financial lending to merchants at an annual rate of 19%, said, "We believe they applied criteria for calculating the lending interest rate that are not convincing. We judge this to be a situation similar to 'gapjil' in terms of business ethics."
President Lee Jae-myung and the financial authorities have been sharply criticizing Coupang in succession. They say Coupang appears to be evading responsibility despite leaking a massive amount of personal information. Recently, Lee said, "They act as if they are not afraid of punishment even when they break the rules," and Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Eog-weon said at a Coupang hearing, "We are scrutinizing everything, including whether the lending rate is appropriate, whether the repayment method is appropriate, and whether the loan advertising is appropriate."
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is considering establishing a supervisory framework comparable to that for financial institutions, in cooperation with relevant agencies, for large retail platforms like Coupang. An FSS official said, "With the hearing having taken place, public attention on Coupang is high, so there is a mood to conduct a thorough review."