A person walks past advertising banners of mortgage loan products outside a bank in Seoul, Sept. 18. Yonhap
About 290,000 people have refinanced their loans worth 16 trillion won ($11.43 billion) through a state loan exchange program, reducing their interest burdens, the financial regulator said Sunday.
The government introduced the online loan refinancing service in May 2023 to help ease public burdens from high interest rates, and around 290,000 people had switched over to other loan programs with lower rates through the end of October, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC).
The total amount of loans refinanced came to 16 trillion won, and the lending rates went down by 1.53 percentage points on average, meaning that a borrower saved an average of 1.76 million won per year, it added.
In an effort to further ease interest burdens on the people, the government plans to begin sharply reducing prepayment fees on loans next year, which is expected to bring down the total yearly amount of prepayment penalties to 150 billion won from the current 300 billion won, the FSC said. (Yonhap)
English (United States) ·