Financial Complaints Up 9.4% Year-on-Year... Surge in Bank Loan Interest Rate Complaints

Financial Supervisory Service '2023 First Half Financial Complaints Trends'
Bank Loan Interest Rate Complaints
Up 853.5% Year-on-Year

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The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) received a total of 48,506 complaints in the first half of this year, marking a 9.4% increase compared to the same period last year. In particular, complaints regarding bank loan interest rates surged during the first half of this year.

On the 10th, the FSS released the '2023 First Half Financial Complaint Trends' report, explaining that complaints increased in the small and medium enterprises (SME) & low-income, banking, and non-life insurance sectors. The proportion by sector was non-life insurance (36.8%), SME & low-income (22.1%), banking (17.5%), life insurance (14.8%), and financial investment (8.8%), in that order.

In the SME & low-income sector, complaints increased regarding credit card terms and conditions changes, unfair charges on usage fees, and payment cancellation requests. In banking, complaints related to additional interest rates on apartment interim payment loans increased, while in non-life insurance, complaints about contract establishment and termination, as well as insurance solicitation, rose.

Notably, complaints about bank loan interest rates reached 2,155 cases in the first half of this year, a sharp increase of 853.5% (1,929 cases) compared to 226 cases in the same period last year. There were 1,652 complaints requesting interest rate adjustments, citing excessive additional interest rates on apartment interim payment loans. Regarding this, an FSS official explained, "We plan to establish measures to protect consumer rights by strengthening prior guidance related to interim payment loan interest rates."

Complaints against credit card companies also rose to 5,124 cases, a 72% (2,145 cases) increase compared to 2,979 cases in the same period last year. Complaints that installment payments were restricted due to unilateral policy changes by card companies amounted to 1,034 cases. Additionally, there were 578 payment cancellation requests related to unauthorized charges from lost or stolen cards during overseas travel or voice phishing incidents.

The average complaint processing time for general complaints was 13.9 days, a decrease of 0.3 days compared to 14.2 days last year. Dispute complaints took 103.9 days on average, an increase of 12.2 days compared to 91.7 days in the same period last year, due to handling many long-term backlog complaints such as private equity funds. The FSS stated that as a result of operating dispute resolution innovation measures, it processed 48,902 financial complaints, a 20.1% increase compared to last year. An FSS official said, "We will continue to improve and implement processing measures such as dispute resolution innovation plans to resolve backlogs and shorten processing times."

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