무모한 투자로 550억 날린 농협은행

Published : Jul 11, 2013 - 17:58 Updated : Jul 11, 2013 - 22:53

금융감독원은 최근 농협은행을 종합 검사해 취급 제한 파생상품 거래로 인한 손실, 부당한 연대보증 요구 등을 적발하고 기관주의를 내렸다고 11일 밝혔다.

농협은행은 이번 검사에서 시중은행이라고 보기 어려울 정도로 허술함을 드러냈다.

농협은행 파생상품 딜러는 2011년에 은행 내규에서 취급을 제한한 파생상품을 182회 거래해 1천900만달러(218억원)의 손실을 초래했다. 2010년부터 2011년에는 무려 323회에 걸쳐 해외금리선물 등 파생상품의 거래 조건을 전산시스템에 허위로 입력하기도 했다.

해외 부동산펀드 투자도 엉망이었다.

2007년부터 2009년까지 농협은행은 해외 부동산펀드에 3천300만달러(389억원) 투자 시 전결 규정을 위반해 투자 결정을 했다가 2천830만달러(333억원)의 손해를 봤다.

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NongHyup Bank sanctioned for incurring W55b loss

Financial regulators revealed that NongHyup Bank had engaged in irregular investment practices and breached banking regulations, which led to heavy losses.

NongHyup Bank suffered losses of 55.1 billion won ($47.9 million) from reckless investment between 2007 and 2011, according to the Financial Supervisory Service on Thursday.

A dealer at the bank brought about losses totaling 21.8 billion won after he traded unauthorized financial derivatives 182 times over seven months in 2011.

A division of the bank incurred losses worth 33.3 billion won in its investment in an overseas real estate fund from July 2007 to May 2009.

In addition, as an irregular consumer financer, the lender was found to have overcharged 564 borrowers 1.6 billion won in loan interest.

The FSS said it issued an institutional caution against NongHyup and censured 28 employees. It also imposed fines of 25 million won.

According to market insiders, NongHyup Bank has also been negligent in other sectors such as consumer protection and cyber security.

In the yearly assessment from the regulator on financial firms’ consumer protection publicized in April, Nonghyup Bank ranked at the bottom out of the nation’s 15 commercial banks.

Nonghyup Bank was given the lowest grade of “class 5” for the second consecutive year. Its customers have sometimes faced inconveniences due to the lender’s network system glitches.

Concerning cyber transaction security, the nation’s chief financial regulator pledged to make a full-fledged investigation into NongHyup Bank and its parent company, NongHyup Financial Group.

In the local financial sector, Nonghyup posted the most frequent accidents, involving the paralysis of its Internet banking system, from hacker attacks over the past few years.

By Kim Yon-se
(kys@heraldcorp.com)