Seungbeom Ko Meets Today with Heads of Top 5 Financial Companies... What Will They Discuss?

Likely to Urge COVID-19 Financial Support and Household Debt Response

Financial Services Commission Chairman Ko Seung-beom is giving a greeting at the Financial Services Commission's on-site meeting with small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners held at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 9th. On this day, Chairman Ko is known to have listened to opinions regarding financial difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners related to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as financial support measures such as maturity extension and repayment deferral through the meeting. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jin-ho] Go Seung-beom, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, will hold a meeting with the chairmen of the five major financial holding companies. At this meeting, Chairman Go is expected to continue discussions on various measures ranging from household debt policies to the extension of COVID-19 financial support.

According to the financial sector on the 10th, Chairman Go will meet in the afternoon at the Bankers' Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, with KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byeong, Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tae, Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, and NH Nonghyup Financial Group Chairman Son Byung-hwan.

This meeting, which also serves as a courtesy visit, is the first official gathering with financial holding company chairmen since Chairman Go’s inauguration. It is expected that they will discuss measures to strengthen the management of rapidly increasing household debt and whether to extend the maturity extension and interest payment deferral measures for small business owners and self-employed individuals, which are set to expire at the end of this month.

Chairman Go indicated on the 31st of last month, shortly after his inauguration, that the ‘COVID financial support’ would be extended. Considering the difficulties faced by self-employed individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises due to intensified social distancing measures, his view is that ‘an extension is inevitable.’

According to the financial sector, the plan to extend loan maturities for self-employed individuals and others by six months, as before, is being strongly considered. However, the interest deferral measure is being considered for discontinuation. This is because the scale is only about 200 billion won, and even if it is stopped immediately, it is believed that the difficulties of small business owners will not be exacerbated.

Chairman Go is also expected to request cooperation for household debt management. Since he agreed to actively cooperate on household debt response during meetings with Jeong Eun-bo, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, and Lee Ju-yeol, Governor of the Bank of Korea, it is highly likely that he will call for the participation of financial companies.

Recently, a so-called ‘balloon effect’ has occurred beyond the banking sector to the secondary financial sector, and it is anticipated that financial authorities will urge stable management to achieve the target household debt growth rate (5-6%) they have set. However, it is expected that they will demand that no harm comes to so-called real demand borrowers due to restrictions on jeonse loans and others.

Furthermore, discussions on the debt refinancing platform are also expected. The debt refinancing platform, originally scheduled to launch next month, has been indefinitely postponed due to opposition from the banking sector. Regarding this, Chairman Go has expressed his intention to "reconsider from the beginning."

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