Public Fund Supported Banks with Serious ` Moral Slackness`

For the banks supported by public funds, the `moral slackness` turned out so serious that they provided low-interest-rate special loans to their own staffs and workers.

According to the materials which Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) submitted to Congressman Cho Jaeh-Wan (Millennium Democratic Party), the total amounts of the loans with special APR of 1 percent, as of June 30, are National Agricultural Cooperative Federation 82.1 billion won, Kukmin Bank 81.8 billion won, Chohung Bank 55.6 billion won, Seoul Bank 37 billion won, Jaeil Bank 36.2 billion won, Shinhan Bank 32.5 billion won respectively.

The loan per employee, which comes from the total amount of loans divided by the number of employees, was the biggest at Pusan Bank (28.53 million won). Then, it was in the order of Kwangju Bank (21.34 million won), Jeonbuk Bank (18.21 million won), Seoul Bank (18.2 million won), Taegu Bank (17.17 million won), Hanbit Bank (16.61 million won), Jaeil Bank (16.58 million won), and Chohung Bank (15.52 million won).

FSS explained, ``It was executed in accordance with the agreements between management and labor union in each bank.``

Yoon Jong-Koo jkmas@donga.com