The Role of Housing Finance Amid Uncertainty... Korea Housing Finance Corporation Hosts Conference

Housing Finance Corporation Hosts 2023 Housing Finance Conference

The Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF) announced on the 6th that it held the '2023 Housing Finance Conference' under the theme 'Current Status and Future Directions of Housing Finance' at the Federation of Korean Industries Building in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

In his opening remarks, HF President Choi Jun-woo stated, "As a key institution in the financial safety net, the Corporation will actively respond to the government's financial market stabilization policies to ensure that market instability factors do not affect housing finance, while practicing inclusive housing finance necessary for the public." He emphasized, "I hope today's conference will be a useful opportunity to promote the Corporation's housing finance policies for the stability and development of the financial market during this period of economic uncertainty."

Lee Se-hoon, Secretary General of the Financial Services Commission, also said, "The Housing Finance Corporation should make further efforts to support housing for low-income and actual demand households as well as to improve the quality of household debt." He added, "The government will continue to do its best to ensure that housing finance becomes a reliable pillar for the people."

At the conference, discussions were held on the role of public mortgages during times of increasing economic uncertainty and proposals to revitalize the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) secondary market. In his keynote speech, Professor Ko Sung-soo of Konkuk University stated, "The role of housing finance is crucial during times of global economic uncertainty," adding, "Especially in times like these, efforts to improve the qualitative structure of household debt through long-term fixed-rate mortgages are important."

In Session 1, titled ‘Housing Market Transition Period, the Role and Soundness Check of Public Mortgages,’ Kim Kwang-wook, a research fellow at the Housing Finance Research Institute, evaluated the performance of policy mortgages, saying, "Policy mortgages were supplied to help the homeless and low-income households own homes," and "They contributed to realizing inclusive finance to improve housing welfare for low- and middle-income classes by alleviating borrower repayment burdens."

In Session 2, under the theme ‘Measures to Revitalize the MBS Secondary Market and Improve Issuance Structure Efficiency,’ Professor Ahn Se-ryung of Pukyong National University delivered a presentation. Professor Ahn suggested, "The volume of MBS trading in the domestic bond market is relatively low, and to revitalize the MBS secondary market, it is necessary to standardize the MBS issuance structure, improve the issuance structure reflecting investor demands, and enhance redemption accessibility to incentivize individual investors."

An HF official stated, "Through the various opinions raised at this conference, we will explore the role and direction of public mortgages."

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