Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF) Grade-3 employee A was disciplined with suspension on Apr. 22, 2022 for a drunk driving crash. But A received performance bonuses of 7.83 million won in February and July the following year. Industrial Bank of Korea employee B was also disciplined with a pay cut for embezzlement last year, but collected a 7.48 million won performance bonus this year.
According to materials submitted by five finance-related institutions (Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF), Korea Inclusive Finance Agency (KINFA), Korea Development Bank) to People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jae-seop of the National Policy Committee on the 20th, performance bonuses paid over the past five years to employees with finalized disciplinary actions totaled 1.25647 billion won.
Grounds for discipline included sexual misconduct, drunk driving, bribery, and workplace bullying—serious violations warranting suspension or dismissal. Even so, employees took home performance bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of won to 10 million won.
The largest amount was at Industrial Bank of Korea. Over five years, Industrial Bank of Korea paid 1.14361 billion won in performance bonuses to employees with finalized discipline. Among them were cases where an employee suspended for drunk driving received 10.12 million won, and an employee given a pay cut for embezzlement received 10.07 million won in performance bonuses. At Industrial Bank of Korea alone, 168 disciplined employees received bonuses.
In addition, Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF) paid 55.72 million won, Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) paid 29.07 million won, Korea Inclusive Finance Agency (KINFA) paid 18.09 million won, and Korea Development Bank paid 9.96 million won in performance bonuses to disciplined employees. At the housing finance corporation, an employee suspended for sexual misconduct received the full 14.6 million won bonus, and at Korea Asset Management Corporation, an employee reprimanded for workplace bullying received 4.98 million won.
Kim Jae-seop criticized it as deceiving the public to demand compliance and trust from borrowers and the public while maintaining an internal structure that still rewards misconduct.
Kim said, "The trust has already been damaged simply by the fact that an institution bearing a public mandate maintained and paid performance bonuses to those with finalized discipline," and noted, "While demanding responsibility from borrowers and taxpayers, leaving financial benefits in place for internal wrongdoers is a clear collapse of discipline and a deception of the public."