Financial authorities have been agonizing over the extension of the maturity of the principal of loans to SMEs and small business owners and the end of the moratorium on the repayment of interest in the fourth pandemic of COVID-19 (COVID-19). Initially, there was a strong trend to end the situation without re-extension at the end of September, but caution is rising that the situation should be watched due to the surge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients.
According to the financial authorities on the 11th, measures to extend the maturity of loans for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners and suspend interest payments were first implemented in April last year. As the COVID-19 crisis spread at the time, financial authorities and the financial sector agreed to help small and medium-sized companies and small business owners avoid a liquidity crisis for six months. The move is set to end in late September after two six months of extension due to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis.
The problem is that the situation has changed due to the explosion of COVID-19 confirmed patients. The situation is not good enough for the government to raise the social distance in the Seoul metropolitan area to the fourth level, the highest level, in the spread of Covid-19. The financial authorities plan to take time and watch the 폰테크 situation. An official from the financial authorities said, “The issue of ending the probationary measure should be taken time to watch the COVIDO situation closely.”.
If the COVID-19 spreads due to strong distance, and it reaches the level before the fourth pandemic, the grace period is likely to end as it is. However, there are many variables such as delta mutation viruses, so there is a high possibility that the situation will change in the future. Instead of Big Tech, the loan-to-value platform business, which the banking sector was pushing to build on its own, was also put on hold. The financial authorities accepted the bank’s demand to establish its own loan comparison platform, but the banks again showed reluctance to do business.
According to the financial sector on the 9th, the banking sector has responded that it is difficult to push ahead with related projects since the Financial Services Commission recently held an informal meeting on how to promote the alternative loan platform with officials of major commercial banks.
The service is related to the non-face-to-face and one-stop loan platform specified by the Financial Services Commission in this year’s business plan. It is a service infrastructure that allows consumers to compare loan rates of various financial institutions at a glance in mobile applications and transfer to loans with low interest rates. Once the loan transfer platform planned by the Financial Services Commission is opened, it is positive that consumers can easily compare loan interest rates and select products.
However, the fees that banks have to pay for the platform are a big burden. In addition, concerns could grow that banks’dependence on big tech and fintech will be faster. For this reason, banks began discussing the establishment of a loan-to-value platform involving members of the Korea Federation of Banks last month. The intention is to provide alternative loan services by creating separate platforms between banks without borrowing platforms of Fintech and Big Tech.
In a meeting with industry officials, the financial authorities reportedly said there was no reason to oppose the idea that the banking sector would pursue a joint loan comparison platform. Nevertheless, analysts say that the project to build a loan-to-value platform is facing a virtually suspension as banks are reluctant to participate.
