South Korean credit card companies — including a unit of KB Financial Group Inc, owner of the nation’s biggest bank — apologized for leaks of customer information as regulators deepened a probe into the matter.
KB Kookmin Card Co, Lotte Card Co and Nonghyup Bank’s card division issued statements on their Web sites yesterday expressing regret for the breaches. Their chief executive officers bowed in unison at a briefing broadcast on the YTN cable news network.
The apologies came a day after the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it began probing operations at Kookmin Bank in relation to client data leaked at the card unit. Prosecutors have indicted three people for allegedly selling customer information from the three card companies, according to a Jan. 8 statement on the prosecutors’ office Web site.
“We feel deeply guilty and ashamed for losing clients’ trust following this accident,” KB Kookmin Card CEO Shim Jae-oh said in the televised briefing.
“We’ll take all legal and moral responsibility,” although there haven’t been any reported cases of the information being abused, he said.
The FSS started inspecting local units of Citigroup Inc and Standard Chartered PLC on Friday after prosecutors last month found that their customer information was also leaked, the agency said in a statement on Sunday.
The Financial Services Commission formed a taskforce on Friday to find ways to ensure financial institutions properly protect personal data. Commission Chairman Shin Je-yoon last week called for a meeting with heads of financial groups.
The regulator will hold top managers responsible for such incidents and will take stern action to avoid a repetition, Shin said on Tuesday last week, calling the leaks a “severe crime that shakes the foundation of the financial industry.”
The three card companies whose information was leaked are not publicly traded. Shares of KB Financial, owner of KB Kookmin Card and Kookmin Bank, fell 0.1 percent to 39,050 won at the close in Seoul after declining as much as 1.8 percent.
While there is no evidence that the leaked information has been misused, the card companies will fully compensate victims for any damage, Shin said in an e-mailed statement to reporters.
The regulator will consider revising rules to seek stricter punishment including fines, according to the statement.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
RSS