NEWS BRIEF

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The Financial Services Commission says that as of late July, loans totaling 120.7 trillion won were taken by smaller businesses who were given payment extensions and supensions under a COVID-19 relief program. The commission explained 1.7 trillion won or 1.4 percent of the loans are considered non-performing, as the borrowers have failed to repay for over three months or shut down their businesses. But it added financial institutions have reserves enough to manage such irrecoverable loans.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety says nearly 1.77 million people applied for the latest round of COVID-19 relief funds and received 441.6 billion won on Wednesday alone. An accumulated 36 million people have received over nine trillion won in total for ten days since the payments began last Monday. This is 83.3 percent of those eligible for the support. The figure also accounts for nearly 70 percent of the nation’s total population. Some 80 percent of the recipients received the payouts in the form of credit or debit cards and 14 percent in local gift vouchers.