The Korea Federation of Savings Banks (KFSB) held a savings bank financial forum at the Bank Center in Jung-gu, Seoul on March 11 under the theme of "Status of Savings Bank Polarization and Improvement Tasks."
Delivering an address at the forum, Park Jae-sik, chairman of the Korea Federation of Savings Banks, said, "The savings bank industry is stabilizing its business conditions such as growth and profitability compared to the past, but it is concentrated in the metropolitan area and large savings banks."
Park said, "Local savings banks are struggling to operate due to a decrease in the population and economic recession in the region.
Related to this, the financial authorities have taken measures such as easing the loan ratio of local savings banks in the business district to ease the gap between the Seoul metropolitan area and the provinces, and recently they are pushing for measures such as allowing M&A between savings banks."
The KFSB launched the Savings Banks’ Finance Forum in July last year to present the future direction of ordinary people's finance and savings banks in line with changes in the financial environment.
The forum was attended by representatives of savings banks, as well as executives and employees of related organizations such as the Financial Supervisory Service and the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation, and SGI Seoul Guarantee.
At the forum, Nam Jae-hyun, a professor at Kookmin University, cited the main reason for the polarization of savings banks as the continued low-interest rate trend, the local economic downturn, and the regulatory system that allows savings banks to concentrate on the metropolitan area.
He also said, “In order to ease the gap between the Seoul metropolitan area and local savings banks, specific improvement tasks are necessary through policy system improvement.”
In addition, participants at the forum called for the joint efforts of the central government, local governments, and industries to revitalize the local economy, relational financial support through public guarantee links such as regional credit guarantee foundations, and local financial support through low-interest funding from the Bank of Korea.
An official from the KFSB said, "We will actively explore and discuss issues related to ordinary persons’ finance and savings banks to make the savings bank's financial forum a pivotal forum for creating a healthy financial market for the ordinary people."
