False Advertisements Spur Clean-Up Orders to 12 Banks

Twelve banks received correction orders from the Financial Supervisory Service for 21 violations in posting mandatory information about their financial offerings during the first half of the year, the watchdog agency said Friday.

"Competition in the loans market is intensifying, and most cases involved exaggerations in loan advertisements," a Financial Supervisory Service official said.

Some banks were ordered to discard advertisements that included false information, the agency said.

A bank only known as "H" advertised that customers had to shoulder only 7.68 percent of interests per year while its real interests for loans that run one to two years stood at 13.9 percent to 22 percent, the agency said.

Another bank known as "J" claimed in its advertisement that its interest rates guarantee higher returns than fixed-interest accounts, the agency said.

Two other banks made an unfounded claim that they were "super-healthy" in terms of their financial assets.

Some banks did not say there were strings attached when borrowing money.

The agency declined to reveal the identity of the violators.

by Huh Gwi-shik