'Tongyang Life Insurance' Fine for 'Credit Information Act Violation' Sharply Reduced to 7 Billion Won

[Financial News] The Financial Services Commission (FSC) has decided to impose a fine of approximately 7 billion won on Tongyang Life Insurance for violating the Credit Information Use and Protection Act. The amount is a substantial reduction from the approximately 140 billion won calculated by the Financial Supervisory Service’s sanctions review committee.
According to financial authorities on the 9th, the FSC approved the sanctions proposal at its regular meeting that day.
The Financial Supervisory Service previously found in 2022 that Tongyang Life Insurance had provided customers’ personal credit information to its subsidiary corporate insurance agency (GA) without their consent. The fine calculated by the sanctions review committee was initially in the range of 140 billion won.
However, the FSC took into account that the information had been provided to a subsidiary GA rather than a third party. Some matters were excluded from the fine, and the fact that the scale of the information leak was not large compared with similar past cases was also reflected.
The FSC also considered that, unlike the Personal Information Protection Act and the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers, the Credit Information Use and Protection Act provides limited scope for reducing fines in minor cases.
Financial authorities plan to review improvements to the system for imposing fines under the Credit Information Use and Protection Act.

[email protected] Seo Ji-yoon Reporter