South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service imposes heavy penalties on Viva Republica, operator of Toss, for unauthorized collection of customer information

The Financial Supervisory Service of Korea has imposed a fine of 5.374 billion won (US$50,000) on fintech company Viva Republica for using the credit information of approximately 30 million individuals without permission in a business feasibility study.
The company is known for operating the smartphone payment app "Toss."
Disciplinary actions taken against employees included a three-month salary reduction for one employee, a reprimand for one employee, a reprimand for two employees who left the company, a warning for one employee, a warning for one employee who left the company, four warnings, and a notice for one employee who left the company.
On the 28th, the Financial Supervisory Service said that the company had received approximately 10,000 invoices from electronic receipt solution company A between November 2, 2021 and April 13, 2022.
The transaction information from 29.28 million electronic receipts was used for business analysis without permission and without going through a data specialist agency, and was directly linked to the card transaction history of Toss members.
According to the Korean Credit Information Act, personal credit information is information on commercial transactions such as financial transactions applied for by the subject of the relevant credit information.
The information should be used for the purpose of determining whether or not to establish and maintain a relationship, and any other use requires prior consent.
When a customer wishes to combine personal credit information with other information aggregates, they must do so through a data specialist agency. The company has improperly managed the consent procedures for providing and using personal credit information,
The Financial Supervisory Service also pointed out that the company had failed to back up the connection records of its information computer system.
"This is the largest amount since the end of the fiscal year," he said, adding, "We hope this will encourage the fintech industry to be more careful when using personal credit information."