Commercial bank loan window. Hankyoreh materials.
Household credit interest rates rose the most in 8 years and 3 months due to regulatory influences such as a reduction in preferential rates last month. Looking at the “weighted average interest rate for financial institutions for December 2020,” announced by the Bank of Korea on the 29th, the rate of general household credit loans newly handled by the bank last month rose 0.49% points to 3.5% per year. This monthly increase is the highest since September 2012 (0.66 percentage points). This is interpreted as the influence of the government and banking sector tightening loans as credit loans through negative bankbooks soared to invest in stocks. The BOK added, “The interest rate has risen significantly due to the impact of the total amount of household credit loans, such as the reduction of the preferential interest rate.” The average interest rate for all household loans rose by 0.07% to 2.79% due to the rise in indicator rates such as bank bonds. The interest rates for mortgages, collectives, and guaranteed loans all increased by 0.03 percentage points. The corporate loan interest rate was also 2.73%, up 0.01 percentage points from the previous month. Large corporations (2.51%) rose by 0.02 percentage point, and SMEs (2.89%) rose by 0.03 percentage point, while the proportion of large corporations with relatively low interest rates (42.9%) increased, and the increase decreased. Bank’s overall loan average interest rate rose by 0.03 points to 2.74%. On the other hand, the savings-related interest rate, which was newly handled by the bank last month, remained at 0.9% per annum as of the previous month. Net savings deposits (0.9%) rose by 0.01 percentage point, but market-type financial products (0.95%) such as transferable deposit certificates (CD) were the same as the previous month. Accordingly, the difference between the bank’s loan interest rate and the savings-related interest rate was 1.84 percentage points, 0.03 percentage points greater than the previous month. Based on the balance, the bank’s receiving rate fell 0.04 percentage points to 0.75% last month, and the loan rate fell 0.01 percentage point to 2.8%. The difference in interest rates on deposits increased by 0.03 percentage points to 2.05 percentage points. Non-bank financial institutions’ deposit interest rates for new payments last month remained at the same level as last month, except for mutual savings banks (+0.08% points). Mutual savings bank (-0.011 percentage points) and mutual finance (-0.04 percentage points) declined, while credit unions (+0.03 percentage points) and Saemaul Geumgo (+0.014 percentage points) rose. Senior Reporter Han Kwang-deok [email protected]