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There is a heated debate over the government's policy of reducing the burden of people in debt with taxes.

The financial authorities say that if the interest rate rises 3%p from now, 1.9 million people will be unable to repay the principal and interest of the loan with the money they earn.

At the same time, he said that it would be good for banks to take care of reducing some of their debts, apart from spending money, but the financial industry continues to struggle.  



This is reporter Jeon Yeon-nam.



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When the store became difficult due to the corona virus, Mr. A received a loan of 120 million won and survived.



Even if the distance is lifted, sales do not recover quickly, and even the price of goods has jumped, so I am worried every day.



[Mr. A/Operating a hop house: The interest rate was too high.

So, again, I hurriedly paid 50 million won, and I paid it back.

(I still owe you) 7,000 or 8,000.

They say interest rates are going up.

I'm also worried about that.] The



financial authorities re-emphasized that the livelihood measures announced last week are to reduce the risk of such low-income earners and the self-employed.



[Kim Joo-hyun / Chairman of the Financial Services Commission: In the past, the government has provided support every time there is a crisis, and the target is for those whose debts cannot be repaid normally. I think it is some kind of device.]


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Authorities simultaneously demanded that banks come up with their own remedies.



Woori Bank is the first to consider reducing the principal to borrowers who can repay their debts well.



If a person who pays high interest due to low creditworthiness pays off debts without arrears for one year, the portion that has been repaid above the average interest rate of others is deducted from the principal in the following year.



[Seo Ji-yong/Professor of Business Administration, Sangmyung University: In the first half of the year, banks made a lot of profits thanks to the interest rate hike trend.

In order to recover the principal of some low-credit borrowers, I will allocate a portion of the profits to that to improve soundness a little.]



As the request from the authorities is strong, other banks are likely to follow.



However, the authorities need to oversee that banks are not slashing the burden on other customers by cutting some of the principal and interest.



(Video editing: Jo Moo-hwan, VJ: Jeong Young-sam)