The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) plans to extend its on-site inspection of Coupang Pay by another week. While no evidence of payment data leakage or legal violations has been found, regulators are also examining measures to prevent future security incidents.
According to financial industry sources on Wednesday, the FSS will continue its on-site inspection of Coupang Pay, the payment gateway (PG) subsidiary of Coupang (CPNG, NYSE), into next week. The regulator launched the inspection on January 2 and had already extended it this week, but decided on an additional extension after determining that more items require verification.
The FSS is closely examining whether payment information from Coupang Pay was leaked during the breach that exposed personal data of 33.7 million Coupang users, and whether there are vulnerabilities in the security system. Coupang maintains that payment and credit card information was not compromised. So far, no findings have contradicted the company's explanations or suggested legal violations.
Regulators are also reviewing the risk level of payment data management systems and security incident prevention measures. "We are conducting a multi-faceted inspection to identify any security vulnerabilities that Coupang may not be aware of," an FSS official said. "We are also consulting with Coupang Pay on additional measures that can be taken from a consumer protection perspective."
A simultaneous inspection is being conducted on Coupang Financial, a subsidiary of Coupang Pay. Coupang Financial, a financial product and loan brokerage platform, drew controversy for offering loans to merchants on its platform at interest rates of up to 19 percent. FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin noted at a National Assembly Political Affairs Committee meeting on January 3 that "even if costs are factored into the interest rate, such high interest charges cannot be justified under this structure," calling it "a typical case of abusing a dominant market position." The FSS plans to review the appropriateness of the interest rate calculation system and require corrections through policy amendments if problems are found.
The FSS has conveyed to the government its view that participation in the joint public-private investigation team on the Coupang data breach is necessary, but has not yet joined the team. However, an FSS official noted, "Since inspections are being conducted in the same physical location, we are maintaining working-level communication, including forwarding matters requiring verification to the investigation team."
