South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission said on March 31 it will carry out preemptive checks on how financial companies collect, use and otherwise handle resident registration numbers as a follow-up to recent sanctions over card companies' violations of obligations for processing such data.

The commission plans to begin inspections in April, focusing on financial companies that provide services to individual customers. The checks will cover businesses allowed to process resident registration numbers under financial laws, including the Credit Information Act, and will centre on banks, insurers, card companies, securities firms and savings banks.

It will closely inspect management and operational practices related to the collection and use of resident registration numbers and other processing. It also plans to focus on whether resident registration numbers are being excessively processed at stages that are not actual financial transactions, including the practice of storing the numbers in logs that was cited as a cause of a card company leak.

The commission said it will proactively inspect how the financial sector handles resident registration numbers through the preemptive review. It said it will address shortcomings in the field through necessary steps such as recommendations for corrective action, with the aim of creating an environment in which the public can use services with confidence.