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Jan 19, 2022
- FSC Chairman Holds Meeting to Review Debt Risks of Small Merchants
- FSC Chairman Koh Seungbeom held a meeting with officials from the Bank of Korea, Financial Supervisory Service, research institutions and local banks on January 19 to check business conditions of small-scale businesses and their debt risks as the loan maturity extension and payment deferment program is set to expire at the end of March 2022.The following is a summary of Chairman Kohs keynote address. Chairmans Remarks Self-employed small businesses make up about 87 percent of all businesses and 21 percent of economically active population in Korea. However, these businesses have suffered greatly in the past two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The financial sector has provided them with loan maturity extensions and deferment on interest payments and it has helped to ease small merchants payment burdens on some KRW272.2 trillion worth of business loans between April 2020 and November 2021. In addition, the small merchant lending support programs made available low interest rate busines loans to those facing liquidity problems. From the end of this month, adjustments made to the card processing fee rates will also help ease small merchants fee burdens.The prolonged pandemic situation, however, has raised concerns about a spread of potential risks to the financial system. For the past two years, the speed of debt growth for the self-employed has exceeded that of the household sector. An accumulation of bad debts can threaten stability in the financial system. In particular, delays in business recovery coupled with interest rate hikes can lead to a credit crunch and pose greater problems for small businesses. The loan maturity extensions and payment deferments for small merchants and SMEs are set to expire at the end of March 2022. Although it is difficult to predict events two months ahead, it is certain that there will be contradictory policy tasks between ensuring the risk handling capacity of small businesses and strengthening risk management in the financia
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Jan 18, 2022
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Jan 17, 2022
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Jan 14, 2022
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Jan 13, 2022
- FSC Chairman Emphasizes Stability as Key Policy Priority in Meeting with Expert Group
- FSC Chairman Koh Seungbeom held a meeting with a group of experts on January 13 and discussed potential risk factors in domestic and overseas markets and ways to properly respond to them. The expert group consisting of academia, columnists and thinktank officials discussed various issues including the need to find a new equilibrium in policy mix, deepening market volatilities, the need to manage risks in the nonbank sector, loan loss provisions of financial institutions and the shifting paradigm in global value chains. In his keynote address, Chairman Koh stated that maintaining stability in the financial system remains as top policy priority for this year. The following is a summary of Chairman Kohs remarks. Chairmans Remarks From the second half of 2021, the financial authorities have been working on measures to prepare for potential risks in markets. The Feds monetary policy changes, continuing pandemic situation, a slowdown in Chinas economic growth and dispute between the U.S. and China can have impact on the Korean economy and financial markets. In response to these potential risks, the authorities have made efforts to build foundations for easing financial imbalances by bringing down growths in new lending and housing prices. To build upon these outcomes, the authorities will first and foremost work on stable management of household debt. Unlike the previous year where the focus was on controlling the total quantity of household debt, the focus this year will be on making systemic improvements through an expanded application of the individual debt service ratio rule, etc. In the meantime, the authorities will ensure that credit extension to the financially vulnerable groups remains available. Second, the authorities will work to minimize negative effects on vulnerable debtors such as small merchants and self-employed business owners in the process of policy normalization. Looming interest rate hikes amid a continuing pandemic situation can place extra burdens
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Jan 13, 2022
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Jan 12, 2022
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Jan 12, 2022
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Jan 10, 2022
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Jan 06, 2022
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Jan 04, 2022
- API-based Financial MyData Service Fully Launched from January 5
- The FSC announced that the API-based financial MyData service will be fully launched from 16:00 (KST) January 5, after a month-long pilot period leading to improvements in the system. As of January 5, 2022, 33 MyData service providers including banks, financial investment businesses, card companies, savings banks, and fintechs will offer MyData services using standardized APIs.Additional 21 entities are expected to make their MyData services available in the first half of this year after getting their system ready. During the pilot period,the authorities along with the financial industry, fintechs and other relevant institutions have worked to bring about improvements in the system stability, data compatibility and consumer convenience. From a consumer standpoint, the API-based MyData service provides an enhanced level of data privacy and information security by placing a ban on scraping and requiring tech assessment tests and an annual inspection on system vulnerability. Financial consumers can also enjoy a greater level of convenience as more types of financial data can be accessed more quickly and easily at a single place. The API-only MyData scheme will allow MyData service providers to receive consumer data from the relevant data providing institutions more quickly and stably. The API-based MyData system will also provide an impetus for further innovation in business models as MyData service providers become connected to more types of data providers than before. From an industry-wide perspective, the API-based MyData system will help resolve the problem of data monopoly by broadening data access to fintechs and promoting competition. It will also help create quality jobs in the field of data science. The authorities will set up a special response team to ensure stable operation and provision of MyData services by conducting real-time monitoring and taking appropriate measures to guarantee consumer data privacy and security. The special response team will be exp
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Jan 03, 2022
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Dec 29, 2021
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Dec 27, 2021
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Dec 23, 2021
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Dec 23, 2021
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Dec 22, 2021
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Dec 21, 2021
- Open Banking Net Users Reach 30 Million at Two-year Anniversary
- The FSC announced that the number of open banking net users reached 30 million with the number of accounts registered surpassing 100 million as the open banking system fully went into service two years ago in December 2019. In two years, the cumulative volume of transactions via open banking reached more than 8.38 billion with the daily average volume of about 20 million transactions occurring for the total amount of some KRW1 trillion every day. Statistical data so far have shown that the open banking users most frequently used the balance inquiry (68%) service, followed by the wire transfer (21%) and transaction inquiry (6%) services. At the onset, open banking was only available from banks and fintech firms but now the service availability has been expanded to a total of 120 financial institutions and fintechs including financial investment firms, card companies and small and medium-sized fintechs. The two years of operating open banking services contributed to the opening up of the financial market infrastructure that has been known for its exclusiveness traditionally. In the mean time, the authorities have worked to improve the system to boost its expandability, fairness and stability. With open banking, financial consumers have been able to enjoy various types of financial services much more conveniently while financial companies and fintech firms have been able to develop and launch more innovative services through platforms, etc. Building upon these outcomes, the authorities will work in the future to introduce an open finance system beyond open banking through which financial consumers can enjoy more comprehensive and personalized financial platform services tailored to their individual needs. In order to ensure strong security measures, the authorities will introduce a zero trust security requirement to strengthen the system-wide security management, guarantee data resiliency and prepare a quick response system for security-related issues. * Please refer t
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Dec 21, 2021
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Dec 20, 2021
- Financial Development Review Committee Holds Meeting to Discuss 2022 Policy Agenda
- The Financial Development Review Committee held a meeting on December 17 to discuss key policy initiatives for 2022 and review current trends and risks in the financial markets. In a keynote address, FSC Chairman Koh Seungbeom said that the governments financial policy for 2022 will be centered on ensuring stability in the financial system, promoting financial development, supporting an overall economic growth and expanding financial inclusion. The following is a summary of Chairman Kohs remarks. Chairmans Remarks Despite overall expectations for a sustained recovery momentum into the next year, there still exist uncertainties regarding domestic economic and financial market conditions. With the global tapering move, market instability may grow. As such, the FSC plans to preemptively tackle financial imbalances to maintain stability in the financial system. To this end, the FSC will work on a steady implementation of the household debt management measures and an orderly exit and normalization from the pandemic-era policy measures while closely examining and managing the vulnerable and the so-called shadow banking sector. In terms of promoting financial development, the FSC will maintain a well-balanced approach between promoting innovation and competition between traditional financial institutions and new players such as big tech and fintech companies and working on consumer protection. In the midst of important structural changes taking place in the economy and industries to achieve carbon net zero goals and make digital transformations, the financial sector should provide active support for businesses attempting to reorganize, searching for new growth areas and making transitions to lower carbon growth models. As the current economic condition demands an ever stronger measure for financial inclusion, the FSC will work to ensure a steady access to financial support for vulnerable groups including credit recovery while seeking improvements to consumer safeguards. Du
