Samsung Life execs paid highest in sector

Insurer paid W4.85b in average annual wage to three most senior executives


Samsung Life Insurance paid its top management an average annual salary of some 4.85 billion won ($4.26 million) in the fiscal year of 2011, the highest in the financial sector.

Top brass of Samsung Group’s other subsidiaries were also the best-paid among credit card companies and non-life insurers, according to the regulatory filings made to the Financial Supervisory Service. Samsung Electronics made headlines in May for being the highest-paying Korean company for registered executives, with an average wage of 10.9 billion won.

Mirae Asset beat Samsung in the brokerage sector, but only due to temporary reasons, according to FSS data.

In the banking sector, foreign banks such as Citi and Standard Chartered paid registered executives higher wages compared to their Korean peers.

Samsung Life paid a total of nearly 14.54 billion won to its three registered executives including chief executive Park Keun-hee.

In average annual wage per registered executive, Samsung Life was followed by Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance (3.95 billion won), Meritz Fire and Marine Insurance (3.29 billion won), Mirae Asset Securities (2.11 billion won), Samsung Card (1.43 billion won), Hyundai Marine and Fire Insurance (1.36 billion won), Hyundai Card (1.27 billion won), Samsung Securities (1.22 billion won) and LIG Insurance (12 billion won).

In contrast, none of the major banks, mutual savings banks or four main financial holding companies ― Shinhan, Woori, KB and Hana ― paid any executive more than 1 billion won.

In the brokerage sector, Mirae Asset paid its three top executives a total of 6.3 billion won including 3.5 billion won worth of company shares as a special bonus for executive vice chairman Choi Hyun-man for his 12 years in management.

In 2010, Samsung Securities paid an average of 1.12 billion won per registered executive, higher than the 880 million won Mirae Asset Securities executives earned.

Citibank was the highest-paying bank in Korea for top management last year, with an average of 813 million won paid to chief executive Ha Yung-ku and another senior executive.

Korea Exchange Bank paid 744 million won, and Standard Chartered 558 million won on average.

Hana Bank paid 771 million won, followed by Shinhan (387 million won), Industrial Bank of Korea (342 million won), KB Kookmin (305 million won) and Woori (283 million won).

Some mutual savings banks paid their executives hundreds of millions of won in wages despite posting hundreds of billions of won in losses.

Mutual savings banks in deficit including Jeil, Tomato, Hyundai Swiss, Jinheung and Gyounggi dished out between 160 million won and 300 million won in paychecks for each registered executive on average.

Lim Suk, the chairman of Solomon Savings Bank indicted on bribery charges, received 410 million won in annual salary. Solomon posted losses of 126.6 billion won in 2010 and 109.3 billion won in 2009.

Outside directors in the financial sector whose only job is to attend about 10 meetings a year continued to earn tens of millions of won, FSS data showed. 

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)