Seoul prosecutors raid Korea Evaluation Data amid bribery probe into credit ratings
Prosecutors from the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office have begun a raid on Korea Evaluation Data, a Seoul-based corporate credit information firm, and its Daegu-Gyeongbuk branch, on suspicions of violating the Credit Information Act. The Criminal Division 6 started the search and seizure this morning, targeting the company’s headquarters in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, and its regional office in the Daegu–Gyeongbuk area.
The investigation centers on allegations that Korea Evaluation Data accepted bribes to upgrade companies’ credit ratings and sold additional products to small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) valued at tens of millions of won in connection with those upgrades. The authorities have reportedly seized documents and other materials in the course of the searches.
Korea Evaluation Data was founded in 2005 with joint investment from a state-backed policy institution and commercial banks. The firm maintains data on more than 14 million companies and assigns corporate credit ratings as well as technology credit ratings. Although registered as a private company, it is described in public materials as a quasi-public entity because of its ownership by state-backed lenders and its close ties to government-linked financial regulators.
Shareholders include the Industrial Bank of Korea, the Technology Guarantee Fund, and the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. The company’s leadership has included many former officials from the finance ministry and related financial regulatory bodies, and its current chief executive is said to be a former deputy minister of the Finance Ministry’s predecessor agency.
The case echoes a controversy cited in 2022 by a lawmaker from the main opposition party, who alleged that Korea Evaluation Data manipulated credit ratings to lift its clients’ scores and misused technical licenses to do so, in exchange for pressuring customers into purchasing costly financial services. Those claims were made by the lawmaker’s office and have not been independently verified in this report.
For U.S. readers, the episode matters because Korea Evaluation Data is a major supplier of corporate and technology credit information used by banks and other lenders. Expectations of stable, reliable credit data affect financing conditions for Korean SMEs, including those tied to global supply chains. Any disruption or perception of governance weaknesses in a leading credit-information firm can influence cross-border investment decisions, risk management practices, and supplier risk for U.S. companies that work with Korean partners or rely on Korean financing markets.
Yeongdeungpo is a southwestern district of Seoul, while the Daegu–Gyeongbuk region combines the cities of Daegu and the Gyeongsang provinces. The investigation underscores ongoing scrutiny of Korea’s credit-information sector and the role of state-linked financial institutions in the country’s financial infrastructure.