Loan Interest Rates and Fees Reduced... Financial Sector Supports 1.0265 Trillion Won in Win-Win Finance

Discovering and Supporting Win-Win Financial Projects Tailored to Each Industry
'Three-Item Set to Reduce Interest Burden for Small Business Owners' Also Being Progressively Implemented

The 'Mortgage Refinancing' service through an online, one-stop refinancing infrastructure surpassed 10,000 applicants within 15 days of its launch, with the application amount approaching 1.8 trillion won. The photo shows an ATM of a commercial bank installed in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 25th. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The financial sector has supported 1.0265 trillion KRW through win-win finance initiatives such as loan interest rate reductions and fee cuts since March last year. This figure excludes the scale of interest refunds and refinancing loan program support in the financial sector. It is the sum of pure benefits such as fee waivers and reductions in principal and interest repayment burdens.

According to the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service on the 20th, nine banks provided benefits worth 907.6 billion KRW to about 3.44 million people from March last year to February. This is about 95.3% of the banking sector's target expected effect.

They supported 502.5 billion KRW to about 1.86 million general household borrowers through loan interest rate reductions and restrictions on interest rate increases upon maturity extensions. Additionally, about 870,000 vulnerable borrowers such as low-credit and low-income individuals received about 93 billion KRW in support through early repayment fee waivers and low-interest refinancing loans.

About 710,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners were supported with about 273 billion KRW through loan interest rate reductions and reductions in delinquency interest rates, and about 39.1 billion KRW was provided through legal support for other voice phishing victims and the establishment of specialized stores for the elderly.

The benefits provided by nine credit finance companies to financial consumers are estimated at 118.9 billion KRW. Debt reduction for delinquent borrowers accounted for 46.6 billion KRW, and 61.5 billion KRW was supported for refinancing loans for vulnerable groups. This is about 55.1% of the credit finance sector's target expected effect.

The credit finance sector supported about 46.6 billion KRW to delinquent borrowers through expanded debt reduction and low-interest refinancing loans, and about 61.5 billion KRW to vulnerable groups such as low-credit and low-income individuals through low-interest refinancing loans and repayment period extensions. They are providing debt restructuring and credit recovery counseling, and supporting small and medium-sized merchants with 10.8 billion KRW through cashback, early payment of sales proceeds, and support for commercial vehicle purchases by lowering installment interest rates. They also provide various consulting services such as merchant commercial area analysis and marketing support using big data.

Although excluded from the total support scale this time, the insurance sector is also discovering and promoting win-win finance tasks such as product development to protect vulnerable groups. The insurance sector reduced this year's automobile insurance premiums by an average of 2.5%, and it is estimated that about 520 billion KRW in automobile insurance premium savings will occur.

Additionally, the insurance sector launched the 'Insurance Consumer Livelihood Stability Special Contract,' which allows a one-year grace period for premium payments during income interruption periods due to unemployment, serious illness, childbirth, and childcare, and also made it possible to apply for interest payment deferral on insurance policy loans.

The Financial Services Commission stated, "We will strive to ensure that livelihood financial support and win-win finance are executed systematically and promptly in the future," and added, "We will support the discovery and execution of win-win tasks in the financial sector and the dissemination of excellent cases of win-win and cooperative financial products."

Meanwhile, the financial sector is sequentially implementing the 'Three-Set Package to Reduce Interest Burden for Small Business Owners,' which was announced at the livelihood forum held in January to reduce the interest burden on small business owners.