Bank credit loans that were blocked at the end of the year are reopening

[이데일리 김유성 기자] Commercial banks’ credit loan product sales will resume one after another from the new year. At the end of last year, banks temporarily stopped selling credit loan products or reduced their sales volume according to the recommendations of the financial authorities.

A bank loan window in Euljiro, Seoul, on the morning of November 23, when commercial banks began restricting credit loans to high creditors (photo = Reporter Kim Yooseong)

According to the financial sector on the 1st, Woori Bank will resume the sale of the non-face-to-face credit loan product’Woori WON Office Worker Loan’, which was discontinued on the 11th, this month. However, the strict standards applied to high-income borrowers remain the same. It lowers the maximum limit to 100 million won and provides limited loans.

KB Kookmin Bank also lifts the restrictions on household credit loans that were enforced in December. On the 14th of last month, Kookmin Bank in principle blocked household loans exceeding 100 million won, and on the 22nd, it blocked all new household credit loans exceeding 20 million won.

However, Kookmin Bank also plans to maintain the credit limit for high-income professionals. Since the end of September, Kookmin Bank has lowered the credit limit for professional workers from a maximum of 400 million won to 200 million won.

Shinhan Bank also accepts non-face-to-face applications for office workers, including’convenient office worker credit loans’. This product is Shinhan Bank’s representative mobile credit loan product. Shinhan Bank has not received applications for this product from December 15th.

Housing and officetel mortgage loans through loan counselors and recruitment of all-out household loans will also resume from this month. Home mortgage loans for the purpose of life stability fund are also resumed.

From the 1st, Kakao Bank receives applications for new’minus bankbook credit loans’ for high-credit workers. Kakao Bank also stopped applying for a new negative passbook and increasing the balance on the 17th of last month.

Financial authorities have recommended commercial banks to restrict credit loans since the second half of last year. This is because the amount of loans that banks lend to each household has increased a lot. There were also concerns that these funds would flow into the asset market such as real estate and form an asset bubble.

The increase in household loans of the five major commercial banks (Shinhan, Kookmin, Hana, Woori, and Nonghyup Banks) increased by 9.2% from the beginning of the year to 56,2154 billion won in January-November 2020.

During the same period (January-November), the credit loan growth of the five major commercial banks was 21.6%. This is an unprecedented rate of increase. In the banking sector, considering that credit loans have a greater risk of insolvency than other loans, they are considered to be of concern for banks and governments.

An official from the banking sector predicted that “in an environment where it is easy to obtain loans at low interest rates, loans will inevitably increase.” “The rise in asset prices will continue to lead to such a rise in loans.”