Savings Banks See 20-Fold Increase in Loans Over 2 Years Through 'Loan Comparison Platform'

Toss Bank Headquarters, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The loan volume handled by savings banks and regional banks through online loan comparison platforms such as Toss, KakaoPay, and Finda has surged, indicating an increased dependence on big tech companies.

According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Yoon Changhyun, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, among the cumulative new personal credit loans of 12.2215 trillion KRW from 10 savings banks including A큐온 (Acuon), SBI, Eugene, Moa, Pepper, Sangsangin, Korea Investment, KB, Welcome, and OK Savings Bank from January to July this year, 18.9% (2.038 trillion KRW) were handled through loan comparison platforms.

This is a significant increase from 0.7% (87.1 billion KRW) in 2019 and 6.8% (1.1246 trillion KRW) last year. In particular, more than half of Acuon Savings Bank's personal credit loans of 1.0422 trillion KRW, amounting to 539.7 billion KRW (51.8%), and 1.558 billion KRW (43.9%) out of 355.3 billion KRW from Moa Savings Bank were handled through comparison platforms. This is interpreted as an effect of financial institutions operating fewer branches than commercial banks shifting to loan comparison platforms and expanding their online business share.

The same trend was observed in regional banks. From January to July this year, 18.5% (270.3 billion KRW) of the 1.4563 trillion KRW in new personal loans handled by Jeonbuk Bank and 15% (287.4 billion KRW) of the 1.897 trillion KRW handled by Gwangju Bank were loans through platforms. Loans handled through comparison platforms at Busan Bank increased from 1.4% (111.2 billion KRW) of the total 7.6698 trillion KRW last year to 5.2% (227.8 billion KRW) of 4.325 trillion KRW from January to July this year.

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