A customer visits a bank loan counter in Seoul, Wednesday.
Yonhap Tighter lending restrictions at commercial banks are pushing more borrowers toward savings banks where interest rates are significantly higher, as the government continues its drive to rein in household debt, according to industry officials Wednesday.
Annual interest rates on mid-interest loans for borrowers with low to medium credit scores range from 9.7 percent to 16.2 percent, roughly two to three times the average for comparable commercial bank loans.
In the first half of this year, savings banks issued over 491,000 such loans, up 14 percent from the second half of last year and the highest level on record, according to the Korea Federation of Savings Banks.
At the current pace, the annual tally could reach 1 million for the first time.
