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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] Seoul, October 12 — A total of 113 employees at South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) were found to have violated internal regulations on stock trading over the past five years, yet only four faced disciplinary action, all of which were classified as minor penalties, according to data disclosed by the National Assembly.
Representative Min Byung-deok of the Democratic Party, a member of the National Policy Committee, revealed on Saturday that between 2020 and June 2025, 113 FSS employees were caught breaching stock investment rules.
Of these, 109 employees (96.5%) were either given verbal or written warnings without a formal Personnel Ethics Committee hearing, or were issued a caution after a review. Only four individuals (3.5%) faced formal disciplinary measures such as pay reduction or reprimand, while no one received serious disciplinary action like suspension or dismissal.
By rank, the violations were most frequent among Grade 5 employees (36 cases), followed by Grade 4 (26), Grade 3 (19), Grade 2 (12), and other categories (19) — indicating that mid- to lower-level staff accounted for the majority of infractions.
The report also showed a steady rise in FSS employees’ financial investment holdings. The total value of investments grew from ₩1.95 billion in 2020 to ₩2.57 billion in Q1 2025, marking a 32% increase over five years. The number of employees holding financial assets also surged 41% during the same period.
Lawmakers have raised concerns that weak internal oversight and light disciplinary standards may undermine public confidence in the country’s top financial watchdog.
알파경제 Paul Lee 특파원(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
