Lotte Card's headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Newsis]
Lotte Card's headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Newsis]

Lotte said Tuesday it received a formal letter of apology from Lotte Card, signed by the card company's chief executive, over a regulatory business suspension.

In the letter, sent Monday, Lotte Card said it "apologizes for the inconvenience caused to customers of Lotte Holdings and its affiliates" and pledged to "focus on customer service so that those using Lotte affiliates do not experience any disruption during the partial business suspension period."

The Financial Services Commission imposed a 1.5-month business suspension and a fine of 5 billion won ($3.49 million) on Lotte Card on Friday after confirming the company had violated its security obligations during a cyberattack last August in which hackers leaked the credit information of about 2.97 million customers.

Lotte Card is no longer part of Lotte Group. After Lotte established its holding company structure in 2017, it sold its stake in Lotte Card to MBK Partners in 2019, separating the card firm from the group. MBK Partners has since managed the company independently of Lotte Group.

"Even after the stake sale, many customers still mistake Lotte Card for a Lotte affiliate because it continues to use the Lotte brand," a Lotte official said. "We plan to cooperate with Lotte Card to ensure customers using our affiliate stores can continue to access services without inconvenience."

Meanwhile, Lotte had protested to Lotte Card immediately after last year's hacking incident and urged swift action to minimize customer harm, as the fallout from the breach spread to the broader Lotte brand due to the shared name. In response, Lotte Card delivered a letter of apology and promised to immediately implement customer protection measures.


spa@heraldcorp.com