SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator said Sunday that it will tighten capital regulations on high-risk household lending, in the latest move meant to slow the pace of household debt growth. The stricter regulations will be applied to banks, savings banks and insurance firms that provide loans to home buyers [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of South Koreans applying for debt settlement last year reached an eight-year high. According to a new report from the Credit & Recovery Counseling Service on Friday, the number of South Korean debt holders who negotiated a debt settlement amounted to 103,277 last year, up 7.2 percent from [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Household debt in South Korea is growing at one of the fastest rates among OECD countries, which could be a serious threat to quality of life in the future. According to the OECD’s ‘How’s Life? 2017’ report, the debt-to-disposable income ratio of South Korean households was 170 percent as [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — A country with high household debt that raises key interest rates can be affected by a drop in total demand and consumption, a report said Friday. “We’ve found that key interest rate hikes have a great impact on the economic adjustment in a country which has a high degree [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — An interest rate rise in South Korea will increase the debt repayment burdens of vulnerable households who over-extended themselves on mortgages during the low rate period, the central bank said Thursday. “In general, household and corporate borrowers will be able to afford an increase in debt repayment incurred by [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top economic policymaker on Thursday expressed concerns that ballooning household debt may narrow room for policy maneuvering in Asia’s fourth-largest economy when interest rates rise, while downplaying the chance of high household debt posing a threat to the overall economy. “The risk of massive household debt will [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The Bank of Korea submitted a report to the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly today in which it predicted that this year’s economic growth would fall short of 3 percent despite the improving global economy and supplementary revisions made to the national budget. The central bank [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – Corporate lending extended by South Korea’s nonbank financial institutions surged nearly 17 percent in the first half of the year amid tougher rules for household loans, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding corporate loans by local secondary financial institutions, including credit cooperatives and savings banks, came to 113.4 trillion [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — High household debt and a possible capital flight following expected U.S. rate hikes pose major risks to South Korea this year, a local think tank said Monday. In a seminar held by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) in Seoul, KERI Vice President Song Won-geun said faced with downside [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The financial regulator said Tuesday it will apply tighter rules for mortgage loans to all mutual savings institutions starting next month, in the latest step to control fast-growing household debt. The tighter rules, which already have been applied to retail banks and other depository institutions, require borrowers to repay [...]