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Yoon calls for curbing banks’ excessive profits

February 13, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol called Monday for curbing excessive profits of banks in consideration of the people’s suffering under high interest rates, his office said.

Yoon’s instruction to the Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, came during a weekly meeting with his senior secretaries amid criticism major financial companies reaped record profits last year on the back of high interest rates on loans.

“The people’s suffering is great due to banks’ high interest rates,” he was quoted as saying by senior secretary for press affairs Kim Eun-hye.

“Banks have the nature of a public good, so it is appropriate for them to use their profits to help struggling people, the self-employed and small business owners through so-called win-win financial benefits, and to build a solid reserve in case of future instability in financial markets,” he said.

Kim said Yoon instructed the FSC to draw up measures to ensure “the people do not feel out of place due to ‘banks’ money feast.’”

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Sejong, central South Korea, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Sejong, central South Korea, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)