The financial watchdog will launch an official audit of e-commerce giant Coupang's financial unit next week over its high-interest loan product following a preliminary inspection, officials said Thursday. Coupang Financial has come under fire for charging high interest rates on loans to vendors by leveraging its dominant market position, prompting the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) to conduct an on-site inspection since early last month. The FSS sent Coupang Financial a notice Wednesday, informing the company that a formal audit will begin next week, according to officials of financial authorities. The inspection will focus on the financial company's loan program, which offers up to 50 million won in business loans at annual interest rates of up to 18.9 percent, based on merchants' sales performance on the Coupang platform. The FSS has reportedly identified possible violations of relevant regulations during the on-site inspection. Earlier, FSS Gov. Lee Chan-jin told reporters that the company had "arbitrarily levied unacceptable interest rates" in order to generate "exorbitant profit