After Hana Bank named a standing audit committee member and then abruptly withdrew the pick to appoint a new standing auditor, a range of interpretations is emerging in the financial sector. Reactions say it is unusual to name and then withdraw a standing auditor. A bank's standing auditor is the position next in rank after the bank president and earns an annual salary of several hundred million won.
According to the financial sector on the 26th, Hana Bank reported to its board last month an agenda item to appoint Mr. A, a former Financial Supervisory Service official, as standing auditor. Because the outside directors had no differing views, the agenda item to appoint Mr. A as standing auditor was expected to pass the board smoothly. However, Hana Bank withdrew the agenda item to appoint Mr. A and appointed former FSS Deputy Governor Lee Jin-seok as standing auditor. Mr. A was said to have declined the standing auditor post on his own.
Multiple interpretations are circulating in the financial sector over Hana Bank's replacement of its standing auditor. Some say Mr. A declined the standing auditor post on his own because he felt burdened that his past service as a National Pension Fund Commissioner overlapped with Lee Chan-jin, the Financial Supervisory Service governor.
Some also argue it is unconvincing that Mr. A, who was vetted and named as standing auditor, would refuse the post simply because he had worked with Lee at the National Pension Service. They say that if the connection with Lee was a burden, he should have declined when he was first offered the standing auditor role.
In the financial sector, there is also a view that the very appointment of Mr. A as standing auditor was somewhat puzzling given that six years have passed since he left the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). A bank's standing auditor serves as the chief of accounting and audit and checks the management. It has long been customary in the banking sector to appoint former FSS officials as standing auditors. That is because they have a high level of understanding of examination work and can serve as a communication channel with the FSS. For this reason, banks usually recruit executive-level officials who have not been away from the FSS for long.
Mr. A worked at the FSS for about 30 years but mainly handled capital market affairs. He left the FSS in 2020, and it is known that he had not been engaged in hands-on duties for about two years prior to retirement.