Korea Business News Agency - NSP NEWS AGENCY.

(Seoul=NSP NEWS AGENCY) = Internet-only bank Kakao Bank’s average per capita bonus(including deferred bonuses) last year decreased by 56.69% compared to the previous year. This is due to the difference in profits from exercising stock options(stock purchase options). In relation to this, Kakao Bank’s position was that “this is not the amount that Kakao Bank actually provides directly to employees,” but there are opinions that employees may feel that their performance bonus has been reduced by more than half.

In addition, due to the recent legal risks of Kakao management, Kakao Bank’s stock price, which had been maintaining the 20,000-30,000 won range for a while, plummeted to the 18,000 won level as the majority shareholder of Kakao Bank was in danger of being replaced by Korea Investment & Securities. There are concerns that employee dissatisfaction may grow further as this happened not long after news broke that employees were deep in debt due to the ‘soul-sucking’(going into debt to invest with your soul) buyout of employee stock shares.

According to the ‘Bank Management Status Report’ published by the Korea Federation of Banks on the 1st by compiling data from each company, the average bonus per executive paid under the performance-based compensation system at Kakao Bank in 2022 decreased by 56.69% year-on-year. The average employee performance compensation decreased by 9.13% year-on-year.

The decrease in performance bonus is due to the difference in stock option exercise profits. Kakao Bank’s stock price, which exceeded 90,000 won after listing in 2021, broke the 60,000 won level in two months. Then, in the aftermath of the Kakao Pay stock option fraud case, Kakao Bank’s stock price fell to the 40,000 won range and collapsed to the 20,000 won range in October last year.

“Stock options give employees the right to buy shares of the company so that they can contribute to the company’s mid-to long-term growth,” said Kakao Bank, adding that “stock option exercise profit is a calculation of the profit when exercising stock options and is not an actual payment by the company to the employee.”

Excluding stock options, the average earned income of executives as of 2022 is 362.4 million won per person, of which bonuses are 165.72 million won. The average earned income of employees is 98.7 million won per person, and the bonus is 15.33 million won.

By Soon-ki Lee(s8789@nspna.com) and Soo-in Kang(sink606@nspna.com)

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