It was confirmed that Woori Bank had been giving extra points in performance evaluations to employees who sold insurance products from Fubon Hyundai Life, a shareholder of Woori Financial Group. Fubon Hyundai Life holds about 4% equity in Woori Financial Group and has the authority to recommend one outside director to the board. The fact that Woori Bank gave extra evaluation points to employees who sold insurance products from Fubon Hyundai Life, a major shareholder of its parent company, has prompted criticism that it prioritized shareholders over customers.
Sales surged after Woori Bank gave extra points for selling Fubon Hyundai Life products. Last year, Fubon Hyundai Life accounted for 15.8% of all insurance products sold by Woori Bank, ranking first. This is a higher share than ABL Life (13.8%), which was incorporated as an affiliate of Woori Financial Group.
Fubon Hyundai Life, a Taiwan-affiliated insurer, ranks outside the top 10 life insurers by capital size, yet sales were overwhelmingly high only at Woori Bank. Among the four major commercial banks, none had a Fubon Hyundai Life sales share as high as Woori Bank.
In banks, KPIs are directly tied to promotion, fueling fierce competition to earn higher scores. Because of this, there is criticism that Woori Bank's design of KPIs to sell more financial products from a parent company's oligopolistic shareholder reflects internal control problems. When KPIs are linked to the sale of a specific product, bank employees are more likely to sell that product first rather than the product most advantageous to consumers.
A Woori Bank employee said, "When selling insurance products, everyone thought we had to sell Fubon Hyundai Life products first (because of the KPI extra points)."
Starting this year, Woori Bank removed extra points for selling Fubon Hyundai Life products from employees' key performance indicators (KPI; Key Performance Index). After the extra points disappeared from KPIs, sales of Fubon Hyundai Life insurance products plummeted. According to Woori Bank's disclosure of life insurer sales shares for January–February this year, ABL Life, an affiliate, had the highest share at 31.2%, followed by Kyobo Life Insurance (12.2%), Tongyang Life Insurance (10.1%), and Hanwha Life Insurance (8.8%). Fubon Hyundai Life's share was 1%.
A financial industry official said, "When there were extra points for selling Fubon Hyundai Life products, it ranked No. 1, but after the extra points disappeared, the share plunged to around 1%, which is evidence that Woori Bank employees sold Fubon Hyundai Life products to earn higher KPIs," adding, "It is enough to give the impression that Woori Bank prioritizes shareholders over consumers."