South Korea's Tax Agency Launches Special Probe Into KB Kookmin Bank

South Korea's National Tax Service has opened a special tax investigation into KB Kookmin Bank, one of the country's largest commercial lenders, according to financial sources cited by Yonhap on Thursday.

Around 30 investigators from the NTS's Seoul Regional Tax Office were sent to the bank's headquarters in western Seoul to secure accounting documents needed for the audit. The team reportedly belongs to Investigation Bureau 4, the division tasked with rooting out corporate tax evasion and colloquially nicknamed the "Grim Reaper" within business circles for the intensity of its inquiries.

The probe is expected to continue through the end of this year, sources said, though the exact scope and the specific issues under review have not been disclosed. A tax agency official told Yonhap the NTS does not confirm details of investigations into individual companies, leaving the reason for the audit unclear for now.

The move comes just months after the same bureau launched similar special probes into Hana Financial Group and Meritz Securities in May. Market observers linked that earlier round of scrutiny to remarks by President Lee Jae Myung criticizing financial firms for falling short on commitments to the public interest, suggesting authorities may be stepping up oversight of the sector's largest players.

KB Kookmin Bank is the core banking unit of KB Financial Group, one of South Korea's biggest financial holding companies. Neither the bank nor KB Financial Group has issued a public statement on the investigation, and it remains unclear whether the audit is connected to routine periodic reviews or points to a specific compliance concern.

The development adds KB Kookmin Bank to a growing list of major South Korean financial institutions facing heightened tax scrutiny this year, a trend that analysts say could keep investors watching closely for any signals about broader regulatory pressure on the banking sector.