Financial Services Commission Sets Next Year's Budget at 5.3 Trillion Won: "Expanding Future Growth Engines, Supporting the Financially Vulnerable"

Budget for the Financial Services Commission in Fiscal Year 2026
26% Increase from This Year to Support the National Growth Fund and More

The Financial Services Commission announced on August 29 that it has set its budget for 2026 at 5.2962 trillion won, a 26.6% increase compared to this year.

The commission explained that, as part of a long-term investment in future strategic industries, it has allocated 1 trillion won from the national budget as a resource for the National Growth Fund (with a scale of over 100 trillion won), which will be formed by utilizing the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund and private capital (such as pension funds, private financial institutions, and the public).

By using government finances as a catalyst to attract private capital, the commission expects the National Growth Fund to make concentrated investments in advanced strategic industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors, thereby significantly enhancing the competitiveness of future strategic industries, which are key drivers of national growth.

A budget has also been allocated to ease financial difficulties for low-income individuals and financially vulnerable groups struggling due to the deepening economic downturn. To this end, the commission announced that, starting next year, it will integrate existing similar products from the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency into two products: the Sunshine Loan General Guarantee, supplied with private resources, and the Sunshine Loan Special Guarantee, supplied with government funds. In addition, unlike the current system where different types of financial institutions handled different products, all financial institutions will be able to offer both the Sunshine Loan General Guarantee and the Special Guarantee.

Following the integration of these products, from next year, a total of 450 billion won from the government budget (100 billion won from the general account and 350 billion won from the lottery fund) will be injected into the Sunshine Loan Special Guarantee and Sunshine Loan Youth to supply 2.63 trillion won in loans.

By product, 403.9 billion won (100 billion won from the general account and 303.9 billion won from the lottery fund) will be allocated to the Sunshine Loan Special Guarantee to supply 2.33 trillion won in loans, and 46.1 billion won (from the lottery fund) will be allocated to the Sunshine Loan Youth to supply 300 billion won in loans.

To help young people build seed money, a new budget of 744.6 billion won has been set aside for the Youth Future Savings program. Under this program, if a young person deposits up to 500,000 won per month, the government will provide a matching contribution at a rate of 6%. For young people newly employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (within six months of hiring), the government will provide even stronger support by matching 12% of their deposits.

The matching contribution will be provided to young people aged 19 to 34 whose individual income is 60 million won or less (or annual sales of 300 million won or less for small business owners) and whose household income is 200% or less of the median. To address concerns about the burden of excessively long-term savings, the maturity of the product has been set at three years.

Additionally, to protect low-income and vulnerable groups who have suffered (or are at risk of suffering) from illegal debt collection, a budget of 1.91 billion won has been allocated to support the appointment of debtor representatives.

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