Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Financial Services Commission met with the heads of major financial holding companies along with Governor Lee Bok-hyun of the Financial Supervisory Service on November 20 and held talks on ways to help reduce the interest payment burden of small businesses and the self-employed.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Kim talked about the challenges facing small businesses due to the abruptly increased interest payment burden within a short period of time. Due to high interest rates, Chairman Kim pointed out that financial institutions have been able to make high interest profits at levels unseen in the past, and that this means heavier payment burden on borrowers. Given this situation, Chairman Kim urged financial holding companies to come up with ways to help reduce the heightened burden of interest payments in the post-pandemic period inasmuch as their prudential management capacity allows.

The eight major financial holding companies and the Korea Federation of Banks attending the meeting today decided to collectively expand their social responsibility by actively looking into ways to reduce the interest burden of small businesses and the self-employed. The financial holding companies and the banking sector are expected to engage in further discussions to come up with a specific support plan for announcement within this year.

Beginning with today’s meeting, the FSC and the FSS plan to hold subsequent meetings with each individual financial sector, such as the banking, financial investment and insurance sectors, to foster mutual understanding and engagement on a continuing basis.

* Please refer to the attached file for details.