Savings Bank Loans to Self-Employed Halved Over Four Years

While the amount of money savings banks lent to the self-employed (sole proprietors) shrank by nearly half (48%) over three and a half years, the share of borrowers failing to repay interest on time (the delinquency rate) grew roughly 3.6 times over the same period, data showed. The findings came from a report on savings bank loans to sole proprietors, compiled by Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the ruling People Power Party on the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee based on an analysis of Financial Supervisory Service electronic disclosures, released on the 26th.

Savings banks' outstanding loans to sole proprietors fell from 24.2258 trillion won at the end of 2022 to 19.7751 trillion won in 2023, 15.6398 trillion won in 2024, and 12.8826 trillion won in 2025, before dropping to 12.6049 trillion won as of June this year. That is a decrease of 11.6209 trillion won (48%) over three and a half years.

The delinquency rate rose from 3.31% in 2022 to 7.63% in 2023 and 11.70% in 2024, standing at 11.94% as of June this year. The fixed non-performing loan (NPL) ratio also climbed from 4.83% to 15.69% over the same period, meaning that roughly 160,000 won out of every 1 million won in loans was classified as bad debt.

Rep. Park Sung-hoon pointed out, "True livelihood finance means not just filling gaps with policy funds, but proactively managing self-employed borrowers before they fall into financial distress."