KB Financial’s outside directors most highly paid in 2013: data

KB Financial Group Inc., South Korea’s No. 2 banking group, paid the largest amount of compensation to its outside directors last year with each receiving an average 115 million won ($112,000), data showed on Thursday.

KB Financial’s three outside directors attended a total of 20 board meetings last year, which translates into some 5.7 million won being paid per session, according to the data compiled by the Corporate Governance Service.

The banking group paid a total of 923 million won to its outside directors and internal auditors last year, the largest amount among the KOSPI 200 companies listed on the main bourse, they showed.

The data came amid growing debate over extremely high executive compensation that has taken center stage for the past few years.

Outside directors, in particular, have long been under fire for not fulfilling their mission of independent and unbiased monitoring of corporate governance, just rubber stamping managerial decisions.

The data showed affiliates of Samsung Group, the country’s top conglomerate, delivered relatively high compensations to their outside directors last year.

S1 Corp., the group’s security system unit, paid an average 95 million won to its outside directors, followed by Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. with 92 million won, Samsung Electronics Co. with 89 million won, and Samsung C&T Corp. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. with 85 million won, the data showed. (Yonhap)