The nation’s financial regulator is looking into the allegation that former Shinhan Financial Group chairman Ra Eung-chan had illicitly used more borrowed-name bank accounts than were revealed about two years ago.

“We are reviewing documents to verify whether the allegation is true,” an official of the Financial Supervisory Service said Tuesday.

But he said the FSS has yet to decide whether to launch a re-investigation into Ra’s irregularities, after he was already reprimanded by the regulator for violation of the real-name account law in late 2010.

While civic groups, including Solidarity for Economic Reform, allege that the number of Ra’s borrowed-name bank accounts had reached 23, the FSS said it uncovered four borrowed-name accounts when it made the probe results public in 2010.

The FSS official downplayed the suspicion among some critics that regulatory officials scaled down irregular practices of the former Shinhan chief.

“We had sanctioned former chairman Ra with stern action ― suspension of his duties as the chairman,” he stressed.

Amid the 2010 embezzlement scandal involving the top three executives of Shinhan Financial, Ra had resigned even before the prosecution summoned him.

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