The country’s chief economic policymaker and top financial regulators should resign over the recent unprecedented theft of confidential data of 20 million people, a leading civic group demanded Monday.

Early this month, the Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, revealed that some 20 million card and bank users’ personal data, including bank account numbers, addresses and credit ratings, had been leaked from KB Kookmin, Nonghyup and Lotte.

A leak also occurred at a bank that shared its customer data with its affiliated credit card firm, according to the regulator.

“The finance minister, the FSC chairman and the Financial Supervisory Service governor should immediately resign to take responsibility for the recent data leak crisis,” said the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice in a statement.

Adding to the crisis, Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok caused an uproar by suggesting that consumers were also to blame for not taking caution in providing their personal information.

“The heads of financial authorities have appalled the people with a weak sense of reality and remarks of evading responsibility,” the CCEJ said.

Earlier in the day, President Park Geun-hye also issued a rebuke to Finance Minister Hyun for his remark, saying that it is “regrettable that inappropriate remarks by public officials have hurt the feelings of the people.” (Yonhap)