Seongkwon Lee: "NH NongHyup Bank Increased Staff and Budget for Financial Scams, but Damages Still Rose"

“Comprehensive Review of the Current Response System Needed,” Says Lee

NH Nonghyup Bank has increased its dedicated personnel and budget for preventing telecommunication financial fraud, such as voice phishing, and even established a new suspicious transaction detection system. However, the amount of damages has more than doubled over the past two years.

Seongkwon Lee, member of the People Power Party. Photo by Yonhap News.

According to the data Assemblyman Lee Seongkwon of the People Power Party received from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, the amount of personal damages from accounts used in Nonghyup Bank scams reported to the Financial Supervisory Service reached 47.174 billion won last year, marking a 2.3-fold increase compared to two years prior in 2023 (20.594 billion won). The figure for 2024 has also risen to 32.785 billion won, showing that the amount of damages has increased each year over the past three years.

Notably, the elderly population aged 60 and above suffered the heaviest losses. Out of last year's total damages of 47.174 billion won, victims aged 60 and older accounted for 17.809 billion won, representing more than 37% of the total amount. Compared to 2023 (2.698 billion won), this is an increase of more than 6.5 times.

During this period, Nonghyup Bank expanded both its workforce and budget for preventing financial fraud. The number of staff dedicated to preventing and responding to voice phishing cases grew from 25 in 2023 to 37 in 2024 and 47 last year, nearly doubling over two years. The budget allocated to running the suspicious account monitoring center and related operations increased by more than 30%, from 684.88 million won in 2023 to 902.86 million won last year. Additionally, in 2023, the bank invested 1.9635 billion won to establish a 'suspicious account monitoring new system.'

Assemblyman Lee stated, "Although Nonghyup Bank has expanded its personnel and budget for voice phishing prevention and implemented a new system, the amount of damages continues to rise significantly. Considering that elderly customers aged 60 and above are bearing substantial losses, the entire response system needs to be thoroughly re-examined," he urged.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.