2.68 Million Applications for Interest Rate Reduction Rights at Banks in H1... Acceptance Rate Drops to 19.1%

Interest Rate Reduction Applications Up 77% from Second Half of Last Year
Number of Approvals Rises 22.5%, Leading to Lower Acceptance Rate

The number of applications for interest rate reduction rights at banks surpassed 2.67 million in the first half of this year, marking a 77% increase compared to the end of last year. However, the acceptance rate for interest rate reduction requests at banks fell below 20%. Although the number of approvals increased, it lagged far behind the surge in applications.

According to the ‘Operational Results for Interest Rate Reduction Rights at Banks for the First Half of 2026’ released by the Korea Federation of Banks on August 31, the number of applications for interest rate reductions reached 2,679,000 (2,567,000 from households and 112,000 from businesses) in the first half of this year, representing a 77.0% increase compared to the second half of last year (1,513,000).

The number of accepted cases was 512,000, up 94,000 (22.5%) from the second half of last year. Since the number of accepted cases grew at a much slower pace than applications, the acceptance rate dropped by 8.5 percentage points from 27.6% in the second half of last year to 19.1% in the first half of this year.

The Korea Federation of Banks analyzed that promotion of system improvements and the introduction of the MyData-based interest rate reduction request service by banks contributed to the increase in applications. The MyData service, implemented on February 26, allows financial consumers, upon giving their initial consent, to have MyData service providers regularly request interest rate reductions from financial institutions on their behalf.

The amount of interest reduced totaled 73.43 billion won, a 550 million won (0.8%) increase from the second half of last year. For household loans, the amount of interest reduced increased by 6.54 billion won (19.4%) from 33.75 billion won to 40.29 billion won.

However, for corporate loans, the amount decreased by 5.99 billion won (15.3%) from 39.13 billion won to 33.14 billion won. The Korea Federation of Banks explained that intensified competition in the corporate loan market and the dispersion effect from loan refinancing due to lower early repayment fees played a role in this decrease.

An official from the Korea Federation of Banks stated, “Moving forward, banks plan to further expand the foundation for the use of interest rate reduction rights by businesses and individual entrepreneurs, while also enhancing convenience for individual financial consumers.”

Eunhaeng Yonhap Building, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.