Possibility of more loan scandals

The chief spokesperson for the President, Park Joon-Young, acknowledged Sunday that the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is currently conducting a sweeping inspection of all mutual finance companies and admitted that there may be disclosures of more irregularities at these institutions in the near future.

Park made the remarks at the regular FSS briefing and said that upon the discovery of such irregularities, security measures would be adopted to put the institutions back on the right track.

Prior to the official statement, the President's chief economic aide, Lee Ki-Ho, accompanied President Kim Dae-Jung on a visit to Kangwon Province. At a luncheon with local dignitaries, he stated that the FSS was conducting an inspection of all institutions to ferret out loan-related wrongdoing like the kind that has resulted in recent scandals.

Lee added that related regulations would be modified to prevent such scandals from occurring in the future.

Yun Seung-Mo ysmo@donga.com