Hana Bank, the country’s fourth-largest lender, said Sunday that its chief Kim Jong-jun will complete his term despite being disciplined by state regulators for illegally providing loans to a distressed savings bank in 2011.

The bank said this was because of a pressing need to cope effectively with deteriorating business conditions and preventing a managerial vacuum.

“Senior executives reached their decision to prevent further fallout to the lender, which is trying to cope with very challenging times,” a bank source said.

Kim has a year left to go in his term.

The Financial Supervisory Service earlier demanded Kim be disciplined after accusing him of transferring 14.5 billion won ($13.9 million) to Hana Capital using fabricated documents and bypassing the due approval process when he was head of Hana Capital at the time.

(tellme@heraldcorp.com)