'Seomin Geumyung Itda' Benefits 1.15 Million People in 6 Months Since Launch

Number of 'Seomin Geumyung Itda' Users Rises Sharply
Platform Helps Save Interest Costs and Increases Loan Accessibility
Most Users in Their 20s and 30s; High Satisfaction Reported

Kim Byung-hwan (right), Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Lee Jae-yeon, President of the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency and Chairman of the Credit Recovery Committee, are moving to the conference room after completing an on-site visit to support inclusive finance at the Central Inclusive Finance Integrated Support Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, in August last year. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

The number of people using 'Seomin Geumyung Itda,' a comprehensive non-face-to-face financial platform for low-income individuals launched by the government last year, has significantly increased.

The Financial Services Commission announced on the 16th that approximately 3.15 million people accessed the application (app) within about six months since the launch of 'Seomin Geumyung Itda' in June last year. Among them, about 1.15 million users actually benefited from services such as product brokerage, complex support usage, and dormant deposit payments.

The number of cases where 'Seomin Geumyung Itda' introduced and provided private and policy-based low-income financial products to users was approximately 1.08 million. Among these, the number of cases that led to actual loans was 57,892, representing a 4.5% increase in users compared to the existing Low-Income Finance Promotion Agency app. The number of financial product brokerage cases increased by 16.0%, and actual loan cases increased by 77.0%.

Through 'Seomin Geumyung Itda,' users were able to obtain loans with an average interest rate 5.8 percentage points lower than credit loans from private lenders, saving an average of 244,000 KRW per person and a total of 14.1 billion KRW in interest costs.

The number of cases where dormant deposits and other funds were returned to the rightful owners was 43,014. Payments of dormant deposits also increased by 59.3% compared to before the launch of 'Seomin Geumyung Itda.'

Analysis of users who received financial product linkage through the app showed that 60.1% were male, 62.5% were in their 20s to 30s, and 85.5% were wage earners. The proportion of low-credit users in the bottom 20% of credit scores was 47.1%. By income bracket, 72.4% had an annual income between 20 million and 40 million KRW. The most common loan purpose for low-income finance was living expenses at 75.8%, and 66.8% of loan applications were for amounts under 10 million KRW.

In a survey conducted last November among users of 'Seomin Geumyung Itda' who received loans through financial product brokerage, 100% responded that it helped their financial life, 98.8% expressed willingness to recommend it to others, and 97.3% trusted the recommended products because they came from a public institution, resulting in a high satisfaction rate of 98.4%, according to the Financial Services Commission. The most frequently selected service improvement need was "expansion of financial product linkage" (32.5%).

A Financial Services Commission official stated, "We plan to strengthen users' product selection rights by increasing the number of affiliated companies and linked products for 'Seomin Geumyung Itda.' We will also expand the scope of non-face-to-face complex support linkage projects to include welfare memberships and mental investment support projects to aid the economic self-sufficiency of vulnerable groups."

He added, "We will continue to monitor and improve the operation so that 'Seomin Geumyung Itda' can become the most convenient comprehensive platform that alleviates liquidity difficulties through policy-based low-income finance and serves as a linkage for complex support."