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Nov 04, 2022
- Authorities Hold Meeting to Review Financing Situation of Specialized Credit Finance Businesses
- The FSC and the FSS held a meeting with the Credit Finance Association of Korea and specialized credit finance business companies (credit card firms and capital companies) on November 4 to review financial market situation. At the meeting, financial authorities checked the borrowing condition (bonds and CPs) of specialized credit finance business companies and listened to their opinions. Financial authorities have been keeping close tabs on the financing condition of specialized credit finance businesses and have already taken a necessary step to facilitate their bond financing by allowing the bond market stabilization fund to buy financial bonds issued by several specialized credit finance businesses from November 3. In the mean time, the ongoing regulatory plan to reduce the maximum ratio of financial bonds issued by specialized credit finance business companies, which are incorporated into the portfolio of derivatives-linked securities (ELS, DLS, etc.) issued by securities firms to hedge risk, will be applied flexibly. According to the previous plan, the maximum ratio would have been 12 percent until the end of 2022 and lowered to 8 percent from the beginning of 2023. However, that plan is postponed for three months, which will allow those ELS or DLS to incorporate up to 12 percent of financial bonds issued by specialized credit finance business companies for the purpose of risk hedging until the end of March 2023. At the meeting, financial authorities encouraged specialized credit finance business companies to make persistent efforts to support the stabilization of financial markets by effectively managing their own liquidity condition and the soundness of their assets. Authorities emphasized that financial authorities and the industry should make joint efforts and communicate regularly to stabilize markets. Financial authorities will continue to closely monitor changes in financial markets and promptly carry out necessary measures to stabilize markets. * Please
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Nov 03, 2022
- Authorities Hold Meeting with Life Insurance Businesses to Monitor Market Situation
- The FSC and the FSS held a meeting with life insurers on November 3 to share current issues in the insurance sector and monitor current market situation. At the meeting, participants discussed the recent situation where insurance companies are having to resort to bond sales due to an abrupt increase in demand for liquid assets following a rise in the number of surrendered savings insurance policies driven by increasing interest rates on savings products amid growing market uncertainties. In this regard, the insurance sector expressed the need for measures that will help them accumulate more liquid assets or alleviate their burden of having to maintain certain levels of liquid assets. In response, financial authorities stated that the insurance companies rising demand for liquid assets is understandable. However, to ensure stability in money market, authorities asked insurers to refrain from selling bonds and more actively contribute to market stabilization efforts as institutional investors. Nonetheless, authorities decided to seek measures to help insurers to better respond to the recently expanded volatility and uncertainty of funding market. To this end, authorities will temporarily ease the liquidity risk evaluation standardfor insurers to facilitate their active contribution to market stabilization efforts such as capital calls for the bond market stabilization fund. In addition, at a meeting with non-life insurers on October 28, authorities already decided to expand the types of liquid assets for insurers when applying the liquidity ratio regulationto ease their burden of maintaining liquid assets. Also, for other measures to increase liquiditysuggested by insurers, authorities will promptly review their viability while maintaining close communication throughout. The measure to temporarily relax the liquidity risk evaluation standard for insurers will take effect promptly with a revision to the detailed regulations on supervision of insurance businesses in Nov
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Nov 01, 2022
- FSC Chairman Meets with Financial Holding Company CEOs and Discusses Market Stabilization Measures
- FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun met with CEOs of five major financial holding companieson November 1 and held talks on current financial market situation. At the meeting, Chairman Kim and participants discussed the important role of financial holding companies in stabilizing markets, ensuring liquidity provision to the real economy and providing support for vulnerable debtors. Summary of Remarks by FSC Chairman Amid global monetary policy tightening, Koreas money market reacted sensitively to certain market shocks, which has resulted in the spread of anxieties even to the corporate bond market. However, the governments swift announcement and implementation of market stabilization programs worth KRW50 trillion-plus, in conjunction with the Bank of Korea and the banking sectors speedy efforts, helped to stop market situations from getting worse and that market conditions are gradually returning to stability. To ensure effectiveness in the governments market stabilization measures, it is necessary to have market participants play their parts and cooperate with each other to facilitate seamless circulation of funds. In particular, the role and responsibility of financial holding companies and their affiliated financial institutions like banks are important as they make up a big part of financial markets and have good financial and liquidity conditions. Financial holding companies and their affiliated banks recent earnings temporarily increased mostly as the amount of loans increased amid expansive fiscal and monetary policies put in place to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and as global monetary policy tightening followed. Thus, it is expected that financial holding companies and their affiliated banks will play a role in enabling smooth flow of funds through financial markets by acting as intermediaries to stabilize markets, ensure provision of liquidity to the real economy and assist vulnerable debtors. In this regard, financial holding company CEOs are encouraged to make e
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Oct 28, 2022
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Oct 28, 2022
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Oct 28, 2022
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Oct 27, 2022
- FSC Proposess Revision of Supervisory Regulation on Savings Banks to Improve Soundness Management
- The FSC proposed a revision to the regulations on supervision of mutual savings banks in order to improve management of their financial soundness. The key changes will require savings banks to: (a) set aside additional loan loss reserves for borrowers who have debt accounts with multiple lending institutions; (b) calculate their credit extension limits for real estate-related business category, which is regulated for asset quality control, based on de facto borrowers who have a duty to repay principal; and (c) exclude credit extension to nonoperational business branches (e.g., SPC branches) from the calculation of total credit extension within their operating localities. Background Savings banks have grown steadily since a major industry-wide restructuring in 2014, with total assets and net profits increasing year after year. So far, their financial indicators have been stable. However, as savings banks increasingly deal with vulnerable borrowersdebtors with multiple debt accountsthere is a growing need to strengthen savings banks financial soundness management in preparation for future external shocks such as further interest rate hikes or a drop in housing prices. In order to preventively manage mutual savings banks' financial soundness, authorities prepared the revision proposal below for the supervisory regulation of those institutions. Key Revision Details a) Additional loan loss provisions will be required for borrowers with multiple debt accounts. Most savings banks are currently maintaining higher-than-required loan loss provisions in accordance with the asset soundness categories established by supervisory regulation. However, unlike other financial sectors such as mutual finance and credit card companies, there is no rule requiring savings banks to set aside additional loan loss provisions to cover losses from borrowers with multiple debt accounts. As a result, the supervisory regulation will be amended to require savings banks to establish additional loan
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Oct 27, 2022
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Oct 27, 2022
- Regulation on Loan-to-Deposit Ratio to be Temporarily Eased to Facilitate Corporate Financing
- The FSC announced that financial authorities will temporarily ease the regulation on loan-to-deposit ratio, which will enable banks and savings banks to provide sufficient liquidity to businesses. The demand for business loans increased as a result of the recent contraction of the corporate bond market.However, the current regulation on loan-to-deposit ratiohas prevented banks from responding actively to these demands for borrowing. To facilitate active response, loan-to-deposit ratio is chosen as a first step of temporary regulatory easing because it is only domestically regulated and swiftly adjustable. Authorities will continue to monitor financial market situations and consider whether other deregulatory steps on such indexes like LCR (liquidity coverage ratio), NSFR (net stable funding ratio) should be taken. Details of Temporary Regulatory Easing To help banks and savings banks to more effectively respond to corporate loan requests, the loan-to-deposit ratio requirements will be eased from 100 percent for both to 105 percent for banks and 110 percent for savings banks. The eased loan-to-deposit ratio requirements will be applied for upcoming six months first, and authorities will take into account extending the period after reviewing market situation. With this easing of loan-to-deposit ratio requirements, banks and savings banks will have additional capacity to lend more to businesses. Furthermore, competition for deposit-taking is alleviated, and thus reduced borrowing costs will help in part to contain upward pressure on interest rates of corporate loans. Further Plan Financial authorities will issue a no-action letter in October to allow temporary easing of loan-to-deposit ratio rules immediately. Changing the calculation method will also take effect immediately with a no-action letter in October, but authorities will revise the supervisory regulation on banking business afterward to make the change officially. Authorities will maintain close communication
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Oct 26, 2022
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Oct 26, 2022
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Oct 24, 2022
- Financial Authorities Hold Meeting to Respond to Bond and Money Market Situation
- FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun presided over a meeting of senior FSC officials on October 23 right after the government-wide emergency meeting on macroeconomic and financial stability took place. At this meeting, Chairman Kim ordered authorities to promptly take follow-up actions to implement the support measures announced at the earlier emergency meeting. After the senior official meeting, FSC Standing Commissioner Kwon Dae-young held another meeting with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), financial industry groups, policy financial institutions and commercial financial institutions to check the recent situation of bond and money market and related risk factors in financial institutions. At the meeting, financial authorities explained that they will immediately activate the KRW50 trillion-plus liquidity of supportive measures announced at the government-wide emergency meeting. Authorities emphasized that the government, aiming to ensure market stability, will provide ample support by all means necessary. In addition, as restoration of market mechanisms is the key to overcome the current problematic situation, authorities said, market participants such as financial institutions and institutional investors also should step up their own efforts to facilitate recovery of the role of financial markets as intermediaries and accordingly to ensure a virtuous cycle. Moreover, authorities underscored the need for concerted efforts of both the government and the private sector. Application of all available means at their disposal and close communication between them should be in harmony to ensure market stability as the government alone has limited financial resources. Financial industry groups, in response to authorities request, also showed their commitment to strengthen efforts to stabilize financial markets and actively cooperate with the governments measures. * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Oct 21, 2022
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Oct 20, 2022
- Scope of Data Categories for Financial MyData Service to be Expanded
- The FSC announced a plan to expand available data on financial MyData service from the end of this year. The number of personal data categories will grow significantly from 492 to 720, which can cover most financial sectors including banks, insurers, card companies, financial investment firms and public financial institutions. A demand survey on MyData service providers in March 2022, which was conducted right after the launch of financial MyData service in last January, revealed additional data categories that need to be added. To insert these categories into MyData ecosystem, many data providers like financial industry groups, financial institutions and MyData service providers voluntarily organized MyData taskforce to discuss mutual development and cooperation. Between April and August this year, the taskforce held over 40 meetings and reached an expansion plan. MyData portal (www.mydatacenter.or.kr) will provide information on new service offerings and service improvement of MyData service providers, enabled by this expansion of data categories available. Achievement So Far (Penetration of MyData Service) Since the launch of financial MyData service on January 5 this year, financial MyData service has grown rapidly. The cumulative number of subscribers grew to about 54.8 million (in September 2022), increased about 3.9 times from about 14 million users in January. The volume of API (Application Programming Interface) transfers per day went up from 274 million at the end of January to about 384 million at the end of September. The number of MyData service providers also increased from 33 to 52 for now. (Enhanced Consumer Convenience) Financial MyData service made data ecosystem more consumer-oriented where financial consumers can quickly and conveniently access a variety of their personal data scattered around financial sphere with a single sign-on. As data sharing practice changes from indiscriminate data scraping to formal data transfer under consumer acknowled
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Oct 20, 2022
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Oct 13, 2022
- Household Loans, September 2022
- In September 2022, the outstanding balance of household loansacross all financial sectors fell KRW1.3 trillion (m-o-m). It edged back lower again from the increased one of last month and sustains a stable level overall.Financial authorities will manage to keep the growth rate of household debt stable while making continuous efforts to alleviate financial burdens of low income households and non-speculative homebuyers. (Overall) Household loans across all financial sectors declined KRW1.3 trillion last month. The growth (y-o-y) was 0.6 percent which continued to slow since the second half of 2021. (By Type) Mortgage loans increased at a slower rate than the previous month and other types of loans fell at a faster rate, leading to an overall drop in household loans. - (Mortgage Loans) Mortgage loans rose KRW2.0 trillion in September, growing at a slower rate compared to the previous month (up KRW2.7 trillion), as group lending for new apartment subscription fell from KRW1.2 trillion to KRW0.5 trillion. - (Other Types of Loans) Other types of loans fell KRW3.3 trillion, declining significantly from the previous month (down KRW1.8 trillion), due to a drop in credit loans. (By Sector) Household loans edged back down in both the banking and nonbanking sectors. - (Banking Sector) Banks saw a drop of KRW1.2 trillion in household loans. Mortgage loans from banks grew KRW0.9 trillion,rising at a slower rate than the previous month (up KRW1.6 trillion), as jeonse loans and group lending for new apartment subscription went up KRW0.6 trillion and KRW0.5 trillion, respectively. Other types of loans from banks fell KRW2.1 trillion, declining at a faster rate than the previous month (down KRW1.3 trillion), as credit loans dropped KRW1.8 trillion. - (Nonbanking Sector) In September, nonbanks saw a drop of KRW0.1 trillion in household loans with increases in insurance companies (up KRW0.6 trillion) and savings banks (up KRW0.2 trillion) and declines in mutual finance (down KRW0.5 tri
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Oct 12, 2022
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Oct 07, 2022
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Oct 05, 2022
- New Start Fund Launched on October 4 to Support Rebound of Micro-enterprises and Self-employed
- The FSC announced that New Start Fund, a bespoke debt adjustment program to help pandemic-hit micro-enterprises and self-employed business owners was launched on October 4. At the launching event, 19 financial industry groups and financial institutions signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for New Start Fund. From October 4, application for New Start Fund became available at 76 on-site nationwide locations and New Start Fund website. The MOU has been prepared after a series of consultation and communication between New Start Fund, Credit Counseling and Recovery Service (CCRS) and financial industry groups and institutions. It contains details about New Start Fund like eligibility, details of support, method of debt adjustment and its process, debt purchasing price, etc. Each financial industry group participating in the MOU signing event is currently at the final stage of collecting agreements from about 3,730 financial institutions expected to sign up for the partnership. FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun attended the New Start Fund launching event and thanked everyone who has contributed to the preparation. While stating that New Start Fund will help support the recovery of micro-enterprises and the self-employed and prevent social, economic and financial anxieties about insolvency risks, Chairman Kim urged authorities to ensure seamless operation of this new debt adjustment program. The pandemic-hit self-employed and micro-enterprises wishing to apply for debt adjustment can apply for New Start Fund by visiting one of the 76 on-site locationsfrom 9:00 am, October 4. Application is also available through an online platform. * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Oct 05, 2022
- Relief Conversion Loan Available for Mortgagors Owning Houses Worth KRW400 Million or Less
- The FSC announced that mortgage holders owning only one house which is worth KRW400 million or less can apply for Relief Conversion Loan from Thursday, October 6 (The application period already started on September 15 for mortgage holders owning house worth KRW300 million or less). This preferential Relief Conversion Loan program which covers KRW25 trillion in total loan amount offers eligible mortgage holders to refinance their adjustable-rate or mixed-rate mortgages to those with long-term maturity, fixed interest rate and monthly principal payments. Application for Relief Conversion Loans will be accepted from October 6 to 17.Exact date will be allocated like the table below according to the last digit of birth year on applicants resident registration number (RRN). Depending on the type of the institution an applicant borrowed from, the institution receiving the application differs. When an original lender is Kookmin, Shinhan, Nonghyup, Woori, Hana Banks or Industrial Bank of Korea, the applicant should submit to the original lender. However, when an original issuing institution is other bank or nonbank financial institution, the application should be submitted to Korea Housing Finance Corporation. Applicants need to keep in mind the following factors before application. a) Check the type of benchmark rateyour mortgage uses and its adjustment periodas well as trends in benchmark rates to understand when your interest rate will be adjusted next and how much your benchmark rate will be increased during the interval. b) Decision to apply for Relief Conversion Loan should be made after comparing the expected interest rate of the forthcoming adjustment datenot your current interest ratewith the interest rate of Relief Conversion Loan. c) If interest rates fall in the future and then a borrower wishes to switch Relief Conversion Loan to another mortgage loan that offers a lower interest rate, a refinancing is possible without burden of an early termination fee. If the
