KakaoBank and Woori Bank Raise Credit Loan Rates... "Bank Domino Rate Hike Expected"

KakaoBank Credit Loan Interest Rate Sudden Increase
Woori Bank Employee Loan Preferential Interest Rate Adjustment

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Commercial banks have begun managing credit loans. This is seen as a follow-up measure after financial authorities started managing the rapidly increasing credit loans caused by debt-financed investment (bit-tu) and borrowing to the limit (young-kkeul).

On the 25th, KakaoBank announced that it will raise the minimum interest rate on salaried worker credit loans from 2.01% to 2.16%, effective immediately.

Woori Bank will also adjust loan interest rates from the 6th of next month by removing or reducing preferential interest rate items for the ‘Woori Main Transaction Salaried Worker Loan.’ As a result, the maximum preferential interest rate that could be received has been reduced from 1.0 percentage point to 0.6 percentage points.

The preferential interest rate based on transaction performance has been lowered from a maximum of 0.6 percentage points to 0.4 percentage points, and the preferential interest rate offered to salaried workers belonging to high-quality companies has been reduced from a maximum of 0.6 percentage points to 0.3 percentage points. The preferential interest rate event (0.1 percentage points), which was temporarily operated to attract new employees of high-quality companies until the end of this year, will also be terminated early.

Earlier, on the 14th, the Financial Supervisory Service held a video conference with the five major commercial banks (Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup) and KakaoBank, raising concerns about credit loans that could be excessively used by high-income and high-credit individuals. In response, financial companies have started their own management plans.

According to the Financial Services Commission, the increase in credit loans in the financial sector last month reached 6.2 trillion won. This is 2.8 trillion won more than the 3.4 trillion won during the same period last year. The increase in credit loans in the financial sector, which was only 200 billion won in January this year, surged to 3.7 trillion won in June and 4.2 trillion won in July.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.