SEOUL — South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), officially decided on Friday to impose a 1.5-month partial business suspension and a 5 billion KRW ($3.7 million USD) administrative fine on Lotte Card Co., following a massive cyberattack that exposed the sensitive credit information of nearly 3 million customers.

The regulatory action stems from a severe security breach in September 2025, when external hackers compromised Lotte Card's online payment system, exfiltrating personal credit details belonging to 2.97 million cardholders. The final 1.5-month suspension period finalized by the FSC represents a reduction from the initial three-month suspension previously signaled in the Financial Supervisory Service's (FSS) advance notice.

Explaining the rationale behind the mitigation, an official FSC spokesperson stated that the committee carefully weighed several factors: "The 1.5-month suspension period was determined by evaluating fairness relative to past regulatory cases, the extensive post-incident remediation efforts undertaken by Lotte Card, and the broader implications for financial markets and consumer convenience."

Partial Operational Freeze & Customer Impact

The business suspension takes effect from August 1 through September 15, 2026. Under the terms of the order, Lotte Card is strictly prohibited from recruiting new members or engaging in new card issuance operations. However, to prevent unnecessary disruption to the day-to-day economy, existing cardholders will experience no operational limits—they can continue using active cards, making standard payments, and accessing customer services normally.

A forensic audit conducted by financial authorities uncovered widespread statutory non-compliance under the Credit Financial Business Act and the Use and Protection of Credit Information Act. Regulators reported that Lotte Card failed to perform essential maintenance and patching on its online payment processing systems, omitted mandatory anti-virus software installation, and failed to encrypt sensitive identification data (such as Resident Registration Numbers) and user passwords.

Legislative Reforms Ahead

In light of the incident, financial authorities announced plans to pursue comprehensive legislative reforms to prevent future occurrences. The government intends to actively support amendments to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act to introduce punitive damages—allowing fines of up to 3% of a financial institution's total annual revenue for severe security breaches. Additionally, the revisions seek to enhance the authority of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), enabling them to proactively lead cybersecurity enhancements across their organizations.

In response to the sanction, Lotte Card issued a formal apology. "We express our sincere apologies to our customers for causing immense concern due to this incident," a company representative stated. "Moving forward, we will make every necessary effort to fortify our information security infrastructure and restore public trust as a reliable financial institution."

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