Inclusive finance policies are aimed at providing financial support to the most vulnerable and marginalized groups to help them gain new opportunities and get back on their feet, thereby creating a virtuous cycle between financial inclusion and economic growth. A variety of government-sponsored microloan products are available for low-income individuals and those with unfavorable credit records. In addition, debt adjustment programs are available for delinquent debtors, offering an extended payment period, amortization, interest rate reduction and debt reduction. Consumer protection is a key area of inclusive finance policies. In this regard, the new legislation on financial consumer protection passed at the National Assembly in March 2020 aims to protect consumers from misselling and other unfair sales practices of financial companies while strengthening consumer rights and empowering consumers to make informed decisions about their investment and asset management.
-
Mar 17, 2021
-
Mar 09, 2021
- Government Approves Revision Bill to Strengthen Investor Protection with PEFs
- The government approved a revision bill to the Enforcement Decree of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act during a cabinet meeting held on March 9 with an aim to strengthen investor protection in the private equity fund (PEF) market. The revision bill is a follow-up to the measures to improve the regulatory framework on private equity funds announced on April 27, 2020and is scheduled go into effect immediately after promulgation in mid-March. Key Provisions I. Close Loopholes to Prevent Evasion of Tougher Regulations Currently, the number of investors for a private equity fund is limited to up to forty-nine.When a feeder fund invests in a master fund and the amount of that investment makes up ten percent or more of the master fund, the number of investors from feeder fund is counted toward the number of investors of the master fund. Under the current scheme, when a number of feeder funds makes investments of less than ten percent each toward a master fund, the master fund can be operated as a PEFand not as a publicly traded fundeven when the actual number of investors exceeds the regulated threshold of less than fifty. To address this problem, the revised bill adds another provision to the current scheme, which requires that when a number of feeder funds from a single PEF management firm invests in a master fund and their total investment amount makes up thirty percent or more of the master fund, the number of investors in the feeder funds will be counted toward the total number of investors of the master fund. II. Strengthen Regulations on Unfair and Inappropriate Sales Activities Cross investing or circular investing between PEFs managed by the same entity exposes the problem of artificially inflating the volume of trust or the possibility of dual compensations. In addition, recent PEF mis-selling cases revealed coercive sales tactics in return for other monetary benefits, such as business investment or loan from the fund. The revision bill pr
-
Nov 26, 2020
-
Oct 27, 2020
- FSC Introduces New Rules on Financial Consumer Protection
- The FSC introduced a proposal of an enforcement decree to provide details of the newly enacted legislation on financial consumer protection (“the Act” hereinafter), which is scheduled to go into effect on March 25, 2021.1 The proposal will be available for public notice and comment for forty days from October 28 until December 6.KEY MEASURES(SCOPE OF APPLICATION) The Act stipulates that financial products offered by banks, insurance companies, financial investment firms, specialized credit finance companies and savings banks will become subject to the new law. The proposal includes financial products offered by the Credit Union, P2P lending firms and registered private lenders.(ENTRY REQUIREMENT) The proposal establishes business registration requirements for both loan sales agents and independent advisory service providers. For both categories, online service providers are required to install an algorithmic program designed to prevent conflicts of interest for consumers.(INTERNAL CONTROL REQUIREMENT) In principle, all financial service providers are required to have internal control standards on financial consumer protection with the exception of small firms with less than five regular employees. Financial service providers should regularly improve their internal control standards if and when indicated by the regulators. The internal control standards should include the current best practice guidelines on financial consumer protection.2(SALES REGULATIONS) This proposal specifies rules improvements and introduces additional regulations that are necessary for the implementation of the six major sales regulatory principles under the Act.(CONSUMER RIGHTS) The Act introduces new safeguards by guaranteeing consumers the right to withdraw subscription and terminate unfair agreements, while delegating the scope of application through an enforcement decree. In this regard, the right to withdraw subscription applies to all loan and guarantee products in principle and the
-
Oct 19, 2020
-
Oct 15, 2020
-
Sep 09, 2020
-
Jun 25, 2020
-
Apr 27, 2020
-
Apr 08, 2020
-
Mar 26, 2020
-
Mar 11, 2020
-
Dec 16, 2019
-
Nov 28, 2019
-
Nov 27, 2019
-
Nov 26, 2018
-
Nov 02, 2015
-
Oct 22, 2015
-
Jun 23, 2015
- Plan to Strengthen Microfinance Support
- The FSC announced its plan to strengthen microfinance programs to reduce financial burden of low-income borrowers and to support their self-sufficiency. BACKGROUNDThe government has been driving policy efforts to reduce financial burden of low-income borrowers and enhance their access to financial services through various microfinance programs. The Happiness Fund, launched in March 2013, purchased delinquent loans of 2.8 million low-income borrowers to reduce their debt repayment burden and supported debt-restructuring of 410,000 borrowers as of May 2015. Four major government-backed microloans have also provided a total of KRW 11 trillion to more than 1.1 million low-income borrowers since 2013. In order to expand microfinance support in a sustainable way, the FSC came up with its plan focused on increasing the amount of policy microloans, while reducing debt servicing burden of low-income borrowers. Policy incentives will be also devised to give more benefits to those who faithfully repay their debt. Microfinance policy will be pushed forward to support the self-sufficiency of low-income families and individuals through comprehensive assistance for debt restructuring, job seeking and micro-savings. KEY POLICY TASKS1. Expand provision of policy loans, while reducing financial burden for low-income borrowers The provision of government-backed microloans will be expanded from the current KRW 4.5 trillion to KRW 5.7 trillion per year, which will increase the number of beneficiaries from the current 470,000 to 600,000 per year. To reduce debt servicing burden of low-income borrowers, the ceilings of government-backed micro-lending will be cut by up to 1.5%p starting from August 2015. The FSC will lower the statutory ceiling on lending by non-banking institutions from the current 34.9% to 29.9% through revisions to the Credit Business Act. 2. Provide more incentives for policy loan borrowers who faithfully repay their debt Out of borrowers of government-backed microloan
-
Mar 28, 2014
- One-Year Achievements of the Happiness Fund
- KEY ACHIEVEMENTSAs of March 2014, the Happiness Fund has supported debt restructuring of 249,000 debtors, out of a total of 294,000 applicants since its launch on March 29, 2013. For the last one year, the Happiness Fund has reached out to 294,000 debtors, 3.8 times more than the initially targeted number of 65,000 a year.Out of the 249,000 debtors, the Happiness Fund purchased debts of 168,000 borrowers from financial institutions since its launch. Debts of the remaining 81,000 were taken over from public asset management companies (AMCs).The 168,000 debtors were written off 51.8% of their debts, KRW0.9 trillion out of a total of KRW1.8 trillion (principal only), which is equivalent to write-offs of KRW5.73 million per person.The Happiness Fund helped those in debt restructuring program find jobs so that they could repay their debts on their own.From April 1 last year to March 24 this year, a total of 48,000 borrowers switch their high-interest loans to lower-interest ones with 10% or higher, which lowered their burden of interest payments by KRW 8.93 million.FUTURE PLANThe Happiness Fund plans to purchase student loans with the passage of the Korea Student Aid Foundation (KOSAF) Act, now pending in the National Assembly.The FSC will also make effort to launch an integrated system as soon as possible to manage and coordinate microfinance programs.* Pleaserefer tothe attachedPDF for details.