The South Korean data protection authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), conducted a preventive inspection in the financial sector to end the processing of resident registration numbers without a legal basis.

This action follows a sanction issued on March 11 against a credit card company for failing to meet its obligations in this area. Since April 1, an inspection has been carried out on 220 companies across six financial fields, including banking, insurance, and credit cards. The investigation focused on the routine use of these numbers for general tasks, such as managing accounts and member information, which are not directly related to financial transactions and for which there is no legal justification. Although the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions and Confidentiality permits this processing for transactions, the Personal Information Protection Act (Article 24-2) generally prohibits it for other purposes. The PIPC identified several cases of unlawful processing and ensured their compliance.