A state-funded local fisheries cooperative has been reprimanded for extending billions of won in loans to a church by inflating its financial status and the number of members, the watchdog agency said Friday.

A branch of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives in 2008 allegedly raised the church’s credit rating without carrying out due diligence on the debtor’s repayment ability, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The NFFC extended an additional 15 billion won ($14.79 million) in loans but failed to collect 4.6 billion won, the FSS said.

The lender unrealistically estimated that the church’s congregation would increase to 20,000 and overlooked the fact that the church was going to move to a less populated new town, according to the watchdog.

The FSS said the NFFC is also suspected of failing to report its foreign exchange transactions between 2009 and 2012.

The NFFC and 32 officials were reprimanded, the FSS said.

The FSS has been beefing up supervision of local financial institutions after a whirl of irregularities and data breaches.

The watchdog held a disciplinary committee meeting on Thursday to mete out punishment on more than 200 executives of banks and credit card firms, including the chairman of KB Financial Group, the country’s largest banking group, but postponed its final decision after having a marathon hearing. (Yonhap)