The Financial Supervisory Service will conduct on-site inspections of social contribution activities at Shinhan Financial Group and Shinhan Bank starting next week. The Financial Supervisory Service has been carrying out on-site inspections of the four major financial holding companies (Woori Financial Group, KB Financial, Hana Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group) and their banks since this month, and the recent inspections of Woori Financial Group and KB Financial have been completed. The Financial Supervisory Service plans to finish the remaining inspections of the other financial holding companies and banks within this month and then consider whether to expand the inspections to other groups.
According to the financial authorities on the 19th, the Financial Supervisory Service plans to wrap up this week's on-site inspections of social contribution activities at Woori Financial Group and KB Financial and begin inspections of Shinhan Financial Group and Shinhan Bank starting next week. As the Financial Supervisory Service is allotting about four days to inspect each holding company and its affiliate bank, inspections of Hana Financial Group and Hana Bank are also expected to be completed by the end of this month.
After reviewing the inspection results for the four major groups, the Financial Supervisory Service plans to decide whether to expand examinations to other groups, including NongHyup Financial Group, BNK Financial Group, and iM Financial Group.
After criticism emerged that financial firms recorded public-interest advertisements or events as social contribution expenses even though they were actually commercial in nature, the Financial Supervisory Service was said to be examining the appropriateness of those items. Banks spent a total of 2.156 trillion won on social contribution activities last year, up 262.6 billion won (13.9%) from the previous year.
By category, "local communities and the public interest" accounted for 1.435 trillion won (66.6%), and "inclusive finance for low-income people" came to 538.9 billion won (25%), taking up a large share of the total.
President Lee Jae-myung recently called for strengthening the "public role of finance." At a Cabinet meeting on May 6, Lee said, "I feel that the public nature (of financial institutions) is too weak," and called for measures to bolster the public role of finance. In response, the Financial Services Commission held a kickoff meeting of the Inclusive Finance Promotion Task Force on Jan. 17 and explored ways to strengthen the public nature of financial institutions.
An official at the Financial Supervisory Service said, "After completing inspections of the four major groups, we will consider whether to conduct additional inspections."