The amount of financial accidents at major domestic commercial banks over the past 10 years totaled 549.528 billion won.
According to data that People Power Party lawmaker Park Sung-hoon received from the Financial Supervisory Service on the 20th, there were a total of 281 financial accidents at the five major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup) from 2017 to July this year.
The total amount of financial accidents was 54.9528 billion won. By year, the accident amount was 5.508 billion won in 2020 and 5.292 billion won in 2021, but it jumped to 89.501 billion won in 2022. It then plunged to 4.668 billion won in 2023, before surging again to 121.169 billion won in 2024 and 231.902 billion won last year. The number of accidents gradually increased to 20 in 2020, 17 in 2021, 22 in 2022, 15 in 2023, 34 in 2024, and 80 last year.
At the five major banks, 30 financial accidents had already occurred by July this year. The accident amount was 23.686 billion won, down from previous years. Over 10 years, cumulative accident amounts by bank were largest at Woori Bank with 284.305 billion won (70 cases). Due to incidents at its local subsidiary in Indonesia, last year alone amounted to 115.594 billion won. KB Kookmin Bank followed with 142.205 billion won (73 cases), Hana Bank with 82.237 billion won (77 cases), and Shinhan Bank with 40.781 billion won (61 cases).
By type, "fraud" accounted for 303.607 billion won (149 cases), or half of the total accident amount. It is common for banks to effectively suffer fraud losses when they fail to scrutinize collateral values and other factors during the loan review process. Next were "breach of duty in the course of work" at 155.415 billion won (30 cases), "embezzlement and misuse" at 90.076 billion won (90 cases), and "theft and loss" at 430 million won (12 cases).
Park said, "It is a serious problem that undermines trust across the entire financial system when embezzlement, breach of duty, and fraud keep recurring at commercial banks that must safeguard people's assets," adding, "The financial authorities should not stop at perfunctory inspections but must hold banks and executives and employees responsible for financial accidents. They should also swiftly prepare effective measures to strengthen internal controls and prevent recurrences."