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An absurd thing happened at a local credit union.

I was notified that I would suddenly raise the interest rate of a fixed product with a fixed interest rate, but in the end I decided to do something that hadn't happened. 



Reporter Kim Jung-woo reports what is going on.



<Reporter> This



is a notice recently sent to customers by a credit union in Cheongju.



When taking out a loan, it is said that the interest rate for fixed-type products, where the interest to be paid is already fixed, will be raised from 2.5% to 4.5% per year.



He also added an explanation that "the financial environment is changing rapidly, such as the Bank of Korea raising the base interest rate."



About 130 customers were notified, and the loan amount was KRW 34.2 billion.



This credit union based its basic terms and conditions on credit transactions applicable to all financial sectors, stating that 'interest rates may be raised in case of rapid changes in national economic and financial conditions'.



However, criticism was raised that it overinterpreted items applicable to emergencies such as foreign exchange crises or natural disasters, and the plan to raise interest rates was withdrawn.



The Financial Supervisory Service made it clear that the recent high interest rate situation cannot be a reason for a unilateral fixed rate hike.



[Credit Federation officials: Financial and economic crisis situation, but this situation is not true.

It was judged internally that it was applied unreasonably.]



This is an analysis that the situation in which mutual finance, which relies on deposits and savings accounts for loans, is experiencing difficulties in procurement due to a steep rise in interest rates is the background.



[Hwang Sewoon/Senior Research Fellow, Capital Market Institute: No matter how financial companies are, in order to seek funds, they must pay an interest rate of 5-6% to obtain funds.

The interest rate received from the borrower is lower than the cost paid by the financial company (this is the situation.)]



In fact, at the end of October, the balance of savings deposits in the mutual banking sector was 805 trillion won, a decrease of 4 trillion won from the previous month, the first decrease this year. .



(Video coverage: Park Hyeon-cheol, video editing: Kim Yun-seong)