The Financial Supervisory Service is poised to decide whether to order stern disciplinary measures against the CEO of Hyundai Capital for incurring cyber attacks due to allegedly negligent internal controls.

As officials of the regulatory body move to fine-tune the sanction level on Hyundai Capital CEO Ted Chung, he could be banned from holding a job in the financial industry for the next few years, depending on the level.

There are five levels of regulatory sanction against staffers of financial companies ― caution (the lightest), cautionary warning, censure-level warning, suspending duties, and requesting dismissal (the heaviest).

Should CEO Chung be slapped with sanctions of third-step of censure-level warning, he would be subject to the employment ban for three years though he may be reappointed as CEO of Hyundai Capital.

If the sanction level reaches the fourth ― suspending duties ― he will be barred from holding an executive-level post at a financial company for four years.

The FSS is expected to finalize the fine-tuning by August by convening a meeting of the Sanction Review Committee.

The sanction is drawing interest as the loan issuance company is jointly controlled by auto giant Hyundai Motor Group and U.S.-based GE Capital.

The FSS, which has conducted an intensive inquiry into the incident, said it found that personal information of about 1.75 million customers of the automobile-related loan company was leaked.

An FSS official said it found that the financial company did not take enough preventive measures against such attacks, failing to meet electronic trading regulations.

“Several staffers (including the CEO) of Hyundai Capital should be held accountable for causing public jitters on the security of electronic financial transactions and triggering social troubles due to the incident,” he said.

What makes this case all the more severe is the fact that the company has reportedly been aware of the incident since receiving a hackers’ email attempting to blackmail the company.

Aside from the CEO, the company will likely be issued a “warning” from the regulator.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)