[Practical Finance] "Save Even 0.1% Interest"…Loan Comparison Platforms in the Spotlight

Savings Banks' 'Comparison Platform' Loan Share Grows 27-Fold in 2 Years
Fintech Specialized Service Competition... Diverse Loans Including Franchisees and Self-Employed

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] As the time for the base interest rate hike approaches, borrowers are becoming increasingly anxious. They are looking for even 0.1 percentage points lower interest rates and 100,000 KRW higher loan limits. Riding this trend, 'loan comparison platforms' are gaining attention. Especially with the advantage of being non-face-to-face, borrowers can compare loan conditions all at once without having to visit financial institutions, making pre-loan condition comparison essential.

The scale of loans from savings banks and regional banks through loan comparison platforms is rapidly increasing every year. According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Yoon Chang-hyun, 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 Aekyoon, SBI, Eugene, Moa, Pepper, Sangsangin, Korea Investment, KB, Welcome, and OK Savings Bank from January to July this year, 18.9% were issued through loan comparison platforms. This is a significant increase compared to 0.7% in 2019 and 6.8% in 2020, growing approximately 27 times in two years.

The situation is similar for regional banks. Among the new personal loans handled by Jeonbuk Bank and Gwangju Bank from January to July this year, 18.5% of 1.4563 trillion KRW and 15% of 1.897 trillion KRW respectively were loans issued through platforms.

Along with this growth trend, competition is intensifying. Big tech companies such as KakaoPay, Naver Financial, and Toss are dominating the market while developing distinctive services to build their competitiveness.

On the 10th, fintech startup Bestfin officially launched 'Dambi,' a specialized comparison platform for mortgage loans and jeonse (key money deposit) loans. While credit loans have been the focus so far, Dambi adds real estate loans to the mix. However, it is expected to take some time to use mortgage loan products due to delays in partnerships with banks caused by the financial authorities' household loan volume regulations. Bestfin plans to sequentially provide some products such as jeonse and monthly rent loans and credit loans starting from the end of November.

Fintech TeamWink, which operates 'Alda,' will introduce specialized services such as loan diagnosis, comparison, and management for financially marginalized groups and low-to-medium credit customers through the personal credit information management business (MyData) starting next month. Recently, they have been distributing a 'Personal Rehabilitation Loan Guidebook' for free via their KakaoTalk channel and are conducting preferential interest rate events for personal rehabilitation borrowers.

BankSalad has expanded its scope beyond simple loan comparison to include various financial products such as loans, cards, investments, pensions, and cryptocurrency exchanges. With the full-scale launch of MyData, they also plan to introduce genetic testing services.

Finda is the first in the loan platform industry to enter BC Card and is linking loans to merchants. Finda has provided loan comparison services mainly for salaried workers' credit loans, but by partnering with BC Card, it has expanded its user base to include loans for self-employed individuals. Among Finda users, individual business owners operating BC Card merchant stores can apply non-face-to-face. BC Card merchant loans offer a maximum loan limit of 50 million KRW, a maximum loan period of 60 months, and an interest rate as low as 6.9% per annum. This product is characterized by having no handling fees or early repayment fees.

Beyond the fintech industry, savings banks are also challenging the loan comparison platform market. Welcome Savings Bank obtained a loan brokerage license from financial authorities last month and is reviewing the establishment of loan comparison service infrastructure. Welcome Savings Bank is the only savings bank entering loan brokerage, aiming to overcome the competitiveness crisis in microfinance by expanding financial services.

However, this market faces variables signaling major changes. The government-led refinancing loan (loan switching) platform, postponed to next year, could significantly restructure the market. Alongside this, regulatory issues under the Financial Consumer Protection Act remain.

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