Large banks like a hole shop.

[이데일리 장순원 기자] Large domestic banks, including KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, have virtually locked their loan doors, focusing on year-end credit loans, and the wave is growing. Consumers who planned to get loans from banks at the beginning of the year are being driven into a situation where they cannot find money.

(Graphic = Reporter Jeonghoon Kim)

Household loan’all-in’ instead of small and medium-sized businesses

KB Kookmin Bank, which is vying for leading banks in Korea, has decided to limit credit loans over 20 million won since the 22nd, and Shinhan Bank has decided not to pay any credit loans until the end of the year. Hana Bank also stopped selling its flagship mobile Hana OneQ credit loan.

The reason why banks have locked their credit loan doors is because they believe that it is difficult to achieve this year’s credit loan goal without a drastic prescription. Financial authorities have managed household loans in banknotes at a level of 4-5% increase. This is to manage the rate of increase in household debt. Then, after the outbreak of Corona 19 this year, when the economy shook, they turned to expanding loans, mainly for small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed people.

The bank said that it would make the proportion of corporate loans in total loans more than half of total loans, and took a business drive toward increasing household credit loans rather than loans to SMEs and self-employed people. For banks, increasing household loans centering on high-credit people can reduce the risk of taking money and increase profits. In particular, KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, which are competing for leading banks, increased 22.1% and 22.6%, respectively, until November this year. This is the largest increase in banknotes. Based on these results, the two banks generated net profits of 1.7 trillion to 800 billion won by the third quarter.

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)

When you’re worried about getting behind the scenes, a harsh prescription to lock the loan door

However, as the end of the year reached the end of the year, the pressure of the authorities increased, and the staff were twisted. The financial authorities announced a policy to manage monthly credit loans for banknotes at 2 trillion won from October to the end of the year. Nevertheless, in November last November, credit loans from the five major domestic banks surged by nearly 5 trillion won.

It is reported that the Financial Supervisory Service recently gathered executives in charge of bank loans and ordered a loan restraint, and said that banks that failed to meet their targets would cut down the growth of loans next year. Financial Supervisory Commissioner Yoon Seok-heon also said at a press conference on the 23rd, “It is not well seen from the standpoint of individual financial companies that household debt is too large, but it creates a national risk.”

From the standpoint of the bank, when the household loans were expanded instead of SME loans to increase, the situation was inevitable, and when the situation became inevitable, they issued a very weak prescription to lock the credit loan altogether. In the banking sector, there is also a buzz that the government has created a bubble in the asset market, stimulating the demand for loans, and passing responsibility to the banks.

An official in the financial sector criticized that “the authorities’ sudden pressure on loans is also a problem, but the banking sector itself admits that it is not capable of managing loans.”

The most embarrassing thing about the credit interruption shock is the common people who need money. This is because bank loans with relatively low interest rate burdens cannot be obtained. People who need money by the end of the year have no choice but to knock on the door of high-interest second financial sectors such as savings banks and Saemaul Geumgo. Last month, household loans for the second financial sector increased by KRW 4.4 trillion, the largest increase in four years since December 2016. In particular, the interest rate increased markedly in mutual finance (2.1 trillion won), specialized credit finance companies (1.1 trillion won), and savings banks (900 billion won). It is known that credit card companies’ credit card loans and insurance companies’ mortgage and credit loans also showed a sharp increase.

An official in the banking sector was concerned that “unless elaborate loan management is performed, the confusion may continue until next year.”