Toss Bank Facing Near Shutdown Crisis, Requests "Increase Loan Limits"

"Increase it up to 800 billion won"
Ongoing practical consultations with financial authorities

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Toss Bank, which reached its loan limit just one week after its launch, has reportedly requested the financial authorities to increase its loan limit to 800 billion KRW this year.

According to the financial authorities on the 14th, Toss Bank requested to increase its loan limit from 500 billion KRW to an additional 300 billion KRW, totaling 800 billion KRW for this year. In this regard, the financial authorities are currently conducting practical consultations with Toss Bank.

Currently, Toss Bank, along with other financial companies, is subject to the financial authorities' total loan volume regulation. The financial authorities recommended that loans be limited to 500 billion KRW by the end of the year. This includes loans to middle- and low-credit borrowers.

Toss Bank started operations on the 5th and by the 12th, just one week later, had issued about 330 billion KRW in unsecured loans. This means 66% of the total loan volume of 500 billion KRW set by the financial authorities for this year has been used up.

As of the 13th, the number of pre-registered users eligible to use Toss Bank's services is about 550,000. To prevent a loan business suspension due to the exhaustion of the loan limit, Toss Bank temporarily restricted new sign-ups for pre-registered users for four days from the 9th to the 12th. Afterwards, to avoid customer inconvenience, it resumed additional new sign-ups for 100,000 pre-registered users starting that day. There are still 1.1 million pre-registered users waiting.

In particular, since Toss Bank must raise the proportion of unsecured loans to middle- and low-credit borrowers to 34.9% of total household credit loans by the end of this year, increasing the loan limit is an urgent matter. Currently, the proportion of middle- and low-credit borrower loans among Toss Bank's unsecured loans is about 24%.