Prosecutors indicted 38 people mostly on charges of obstruction of business after a monthslong investigation into hiring irregularities at six local banks, officials said Sunday.

Wrapping up an eight-month probe that began in November, the anti-corruption division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office indicted 38 individuals connected to unlawful hiring in cases involving Kookmin, KEB Hana, Woori, Busan, Daegu and Kwangju Banks.

Of them, 12 people have been detained.

The investigation came amid the Moon Jae-in administration's sweeping anti-corruption campaign.

Among the indicted is former Busan Bank chief Sung Se-whan. He is charged with having helped a son of a Busan city government official get employment at the bank in 2012 by manipulating his admission test exam score.

Four other officials of Busan Bank have been indicted on charges of altering the admission exam score of a daughter of former lawmaker Cho Moon-hwan. Cho has also been indicted without detention.

Park In-gyu, former chief of Daegu Bank, was also among the indicted. He has been charged with altering applicants' bank admission test results on seven occasions between 2014 and 2017 to help their applications be accepted by the bank.

Hiring irregularities at some financial firms and state-run institutions have been the subject of intense public criticism at a time when the nation's youth jobless rate stands at close to 10 percent.(Yonhap)