South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service is investigating Shinhan Financial Group Co. Ltd. over its governance structure and management transparency, The Korea Times reported March 21, citing an official at the regulator.

As part of the probe, the FSS will check whether Shinhan Financial made efforts to diversify its management. The regulator had ordered the company in September 2017 to modify its pooling system for outside directors.

The FSS said Shinhan Financial's management is lacking in diversity, noting that four out of 10 outside directors on its board are Japanese citizens of Korean descent.

The inspection will run through March 23.

In addition, the FSS said it was planning to review group Chairman Cho Young-byoung's role in selecting directors and whether his input to the company's recommendation committee has discipline-related issues.