[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s financial authorities have found 22 cases of alleged hiring irregularities at Shinhan Financial Group between 2013 and 2017, officials said on May 11.

The results of a month-long probe of the group by the Financial Supervisory Service highlighted illicit hiring that authorities believe to be rampant in the nation’s financial sector.

Hiring irregularities at some financial firms and state-run institutions, which are accused of hiring children of influential officials, has been the subject of intense public criticism at a time when the nation’s youth jobless rate stands at close to 10 percent.

The probe found that Shinhan Bank hired 12 entry-level workers in 2013 who were disqualified during the hiring process. Of them, five were children of the bank’s executives at that time and the remaining seven were children of influential officials.

Ten other hiring irregularities were found at Shinhan Financial’s credit card and insurance units, according to the FSS.

The financial regulator has referred the cases to prosecutors for further investigation.

Since last year, some banks, including KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank and Kookmin Bank, have come under fire for allegedly giving undue favors or special treatment to job applicants with ties to top executives or top-tier customers in their recruitment processes.


By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)