Loan Finance Industry, 3.3 Trillion Won Bonds with Expired Statute of Limitations 'Written Off'

Details of recently written-off bonds in the loan finance industry
[Photo by Korea Loan Finance Association]

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The debt finance industry has voluntarily written off bonds worth 3.3 trillion won, whose statute of limitations has expired, to help 40,000 long-term delinquent and marginal debtors.

According to the industry on the 24th, the Korea Debt Finance Association, on behalf of 30 debt finance companies, has started writing off bonds worth 3.3 trillion won subject to write-off, including those with expired statutes of limitations, to support the normal economic activities of marginal debtors. This measure comes two years after the voluntary write-off of bonds worth 247.3 billion won for 20,000 people in 2018.

Bonds with expired statutes of limitations refer to bonds for which the legal repayment obligation has disappeared after the statutory period. According to Article 64 of the Commercial Act, repayment is generally not required after five years. Among these, bonds written off by financial institutions for soundness, such as written-off bonds, were also written off. The bonds written off this time were those that debt finance companies judged to be difficult to recover due to long-term delinquency.

The Korea Debt Finance Association transferred the relevant bonds to the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), and KAMCO processed the complete write-off on the same day. The number of debtors who benefited was 39,116, and the number of bonds written off was 50,454. Discharge bonds were the most numerous at 24,167 cases, followed by bonds with expired statutes of limitations (13,383 cases), deceased debtor bonds (10,595 cases), and others (2,309 cases).

Whether one's bond has been written off can be checked on the OnCredit website operated by KAMCO after identity verification procedures, 30 to 60 days later.

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