South Korea’s financial regulator said Thursday it would announce next month comprehensive measures aimed at protecting personal data handled by financial firms, as the latest data breach has fueled concerns over their poor management of client information.

On Wednesday, the Financial Services Commission vowed stern punishments over any data leak at financial firms, warning of heavy penalty and suspension or dismissals of top executives.

“The measures unveiled yesterday are a kind of guideline, and we are working on further details of the measures,” Koh Seung-beom, the FSC’s financial policy chief, told reporters. “The final version will come out next month.”

Over the weekend, the regulator revealed that some 20 million bank clients’ personal data, including bank account numbers, addresses and credit ratings, were leaked from three credit card firms ― KB Kookmin, Nonghyup and Lotte.

A leak also occurred at Kookmin Bank, which shared its customer data with its affiliated credit card firm, according to the regulator.

(Yonhap News)