[비즈한국] A large-scale personal information leak has occurred at Shinhan Card. While the company is showing an active response to handle the situation, it seems difficult to avoid criticism regarding weak internal controls. This is expected to impact the performance evaluation of Park Chang-hoon, who took office as CEO of Shinhan Card early this year. Even without this, Shinhan Card’s performance has been deteriorating since Park took office.
On the 23rd, Shinhan Card announced that approximately 190,000 pieces of personal information had been leaked. The leaked information pertains to Shinhan Card merchants. Shinhan Card identified a total of 192,088 leaked records, consisting of 181,585 mobile phone numbers, 8,120 records of mobile phone numbers plus names, 2,310 records of mobile phone numbers plus names, dates of birth, and gender, and 73 records of mobile phone numbers plus names and dates of birth of the merchant representatives.
According to Shinhan Card’s investigation, personal information including resident registration numbers, as well as credit information such as card and account numbers, was not leaked. The company also stated that no information belonging to general customers, other than that of merchant representatives, was compromised. It was found that this leak did not originate from external intrusions like hacking, but rather from misconduct by an internal employee for the purpose of recruiting new card members.
Shinhan Card stated that there is currently no damage resulting from the leaked information. The company’s stance is to proactively provide compensation if damages occur in the future. Shinhan Card has posted an apology on its website and is operating a page where merchant representatives can check whether their personal information was leaked.
A Shinhan Card official said, "We deeply apologize for causing concern with this incident, and we will do our utmost to protect our customers and prevent similar incidents from recurring," adding, "While we need to confirm through further investigation whether this matter constitutes unauthorized use of personal information or a data leak, we are taking measures equivalent to a data leak to proactively protect our customers."
Although Shinhan Card is actively addressing the situation, it is hard to avoid criticism over the data leak. In particular, as it was caused by an internal employee, the company cannot be free from accusations of having problems with its internal controls. This comes at a time when public anxiety over personal information leaks is already high due to the recent Coupang incident.
This could also affect the evaluation of Shinhan Card CEO Park Chang-hoon. At the 'Second Half 2025 Business Strategy Meeting' held last July, Park remarked, "All employees must practice innovation in customer experience and achieve zero internal control scandals." Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jin Ok-dong has also emphasized the strengthening of internal controls as a core task while confirming his reappointment recently.
Since Park Chang-hoon took office, Shinhan Card’s performance has been poor. Park assumed the role of CEO in January this year. According to quarterly reports, Shinhan Card's net profit fell by 30.93% from 555.1 billion won in the first three quarters of last year to 383.4 billion won in the same period this year. There are assessments that Shinhan Card's lackluster performance is one of the reasons why Shinhan Financial Group is trailing behind KB Financial Group 105560 in this year's results (Related Article: KB vs. Shinhan, KB Financial Wins 3rd Quarter… Non-banking Strategy Proves Effective).
While it is true that the credit card industry as a whole has been struggling this year, Shinhan Card has experienced a steeper decline than its peers. The net profit of KB Kookmin Card dropped by 23.56% from 368.5 billion won in the first three quarters of last year to 281.7 billion won this year. During the same period, Samsung Card’s 029780 net profit decreased by 6.42% from 531.5 billion won to 497.3 billion won. Hyundai Card actually saw its net profit increase compared to the previous year.
CEO Park Chang-hoon's term ends at the end of next year. Having faced both poor performance and the personal data leak this year, his reappointment cannot be guaranteed if he fails to show improved performance next year. However, given the current economic downturn, the outlook for Shinhan Card's performance next year is not positive. Kim Seok-woo, a senior researcher at NICE Investors Service, evaluated Shinhan Card, stating, "Future pressures from economic stagnation and loan loss costs are burden factors," and added, "With high interest rates persisting and continued economic sluggishness expected, there is a risk that delinquency rates for loan-based card assets will rise, particularly among marginalized borrowers such as multiple debtors."
Perhaps for this reason, CEO Park Chang-hoon is also showing active engagement in managing the situation. Shinhan Card posted an apology on its website under Park's name. Park stated, "Upon realizing the leak, we immediately took measures to block further leakage and completed an inspection of the relevant internal processes," adding, "All Shinhan Card employees feel a heavy sense of responsibility for causing great worry and inconvenience to our customers due to this personal information leak."