In the First Half of the Year, Naver Pay Had the Lowest Fees for Large-Scale Loan Refinancing Brokerage

Among the major loan comparison platforms participating in the online loan refinancing service, Naver Pay was found to have the lowest brokerage fee rate.

On the 31st, the Financial Services Commission announced that major loan comparison platforms participating in online loan refinancing disclosed the brokerage fee rates they received from financial companies in the first half of the year. Brokerage fees refer to the costs received from financial companies as compensation for comparing and recommending (brokering) new refinancing loan products to service users.

This disclosure was introduced through a voluntary joint agreement among institutions participating in the online refinancing loan infrastructure. The loan comparison platforms subject to disclosure are those whose brokerage performance for online refinancing loan products in the previous half-year accounts for 10% or more of the total brokerage performance of all platforms participating in the refinancing loan infrastructure, by product type: unsecured loans, mortgage loans, and jeonse (lease deposit) loans. As of the first half of this year, Naver Pay, Kakao Pay, and Toss each accounted for 10% or more of brokerage performance in unsecured loans, mortgage loans, and jeonse loans, respectively.

The disclosure results showed that in the first half of this year, the brokerage fee rates for online refinancing loan products, based on the average fee rate across all financial sectors, were as follows: for unsecured loans, Naver Pay (0.10%), Kakao Pay (0.17%), Toss (0.20%); for mortgage loans, Naver Pay (0.06%), Toss (0.08%), Kakao Pay (0.10%); and for jeonse loans, Naver Pay and Toss (0.08%), Kakao Pay (0.09%).

Looking at the financial sectors, the brokerage fee rate was found to be lowest in the banking sector. The banking sector owns various loan product sales channels such as offline branch networks and banking applications, and since it has the largest scale of loan product brokerage through platforms among financial sectors, its bargaining power is high, which is analyzed to result in relatively low brokerage fee rates, according to the authorities. The secondary financial sector, compared to the banking sector, lacks diverse sales channels and relies more heavily on loan product sales through platform listings, resulting in relatively higher brokerage fee rates.

Meanwhile, platforms subject to disclosure must annually disclose by the last day of January and July the highest, lowest, and average brokerage fee rates by loan product type (unsecured loans, mortgage loans, jeonse loans) and financial sector (banks, insurance, savings banks, specialized credit finance companies), as well as the affiliated partners listed on their platforms. This information must also be disclosed on their websites, and the Fintech Industry Association consolidates and compares the disclosures of individual platforms on its website.

The Financial Services Commission stated, "If platforms regularly and transparently disclose brokerage fee rates for refinancing loan products, it is expected to prevent situations where platforms impose excessively high brokerage fees that are passed on to users through loan interest rates and other costs." It added, "Furthermore, through this disclosure, it will also be possible to prevent unfairly high brokerage fee rates imposed by platforms on secondary financial companies with relatively low bargaining power, which could undermine fair competition among financial companies."

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