High Court strikes FSC's ruling on Hana Bank CEO's improper trades

The Seoul High Court nullified the FSC's previous reprimand of Hana Financial Group CEO Ham Young-joo for the improper sale of high-risk financial products, acknowledging his role in the dealings but admitting only two of the 10 charges.

Hana Financial Group CEO Ham Young-joo [NEWS1]

The Seoul High Court nullified the reprimand previously imposed on Hana Financial Group CEO Ham Young-joo over the improper sale of high-risk financial products on Thursday.

Han received a disciplinary warning from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in 2020, per the Financial Supervisory Service's recommendation, for the sale of high-risk derivative-linked funds (DLF) from 2018 through 2019 while serving as CEO of Hana Bank.

The High Court acknowledged Ham’s role in the bank’s improper selling of the products but only admitted two of the 10 charges on violations of not having a proper internal control system. Seven chargers were admitted to the prior trial.

The court said that Ham's punishment should be adjusted, given that Ham was consequently only to be blamed for some of the violations the financial authorities originally contended,

The DLF products Ham is accused of selling promised high returns if interest rates in major economies stayed above a certain level. As rates fell in the United States, Britain and Germany, investors incurred heavy losses.

Hana Bank was suspended from selling new private equity funds for six months and was fined 16.78 billion won ($12.6 million).

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]