[Opinion] Financial Institutions

Woori Financial Group could normalize its business thanks to the injection of 7.9 trillion won ($7.9 billion) of public funds.

However, the annual salary of president of Woori Financial Holding Co. exceeds 1.2 billion won ($1.2 million), according to sources. Moreover, employees of financial institutions which resorted to public funds received a greater amount of pay than those who work for the ones survived without help. Those generous financial companies even gave incentive payment to their workers who performed worst in assessment for the merit-based pay scheme. The incentive payment was also given to employees taking a time off from work. This is certainly wrong.

Employees of the lavish banks seem to consider taxpayers’ money as theirs. The average annual pay for rent-a-cops and drivers at four state-funded banks (the Bank of Korea, the Korea Development Bank, the Industrial Bank Of Korea, and the Export & Import Bank of Korea) were 63 million won and 67 million won, respectively. Their pay is two to three times higher than those doing the same job at the Shinhan Bank, the Hana Bank, and the Financial Supervisory Service which outsource the jobs to private companies. In the meantime, the Bank of Korea made a loss of 1.4 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in the first half of this year.

Netizens who read an online article on the news became furious and left a series of reply messages as follows: “They should be ashamed of themselves,” “They are exploiting tax payers’ money,” “Those who repay kindness with ingratitude must be punished,” “They are not humans. It is outrageously unfair,” “Outlaws are everywhere. What is happening to this country?” “Supervising government agencies are also thieves,” “So many things have been rotted under President Roh’s administration.”

In principle, marginal companies should close their business. However, the government helped troubled financial institutions with public funds, as the collapse of the financial system may undermine the national economy. The rescued firms should do its best to reduce their expenditure as much as possible. The Financial Deposit Insurance Corporation which is in charge of managing public funds must thoroughly check how the financial institutions have been utilizing the funds in order to increase the recovery rate. Financial Supervisory Commission, Ministry of Finance and Economy, and Cheong Wa Dae that have been shouting a government reform should also take responsibility on it.

Heo Seung-ho, Editorial Writer, tigera@donga.com