[2026 National Assembly Audit] Inclusive Finance Platform "Itda" Has a 4% Disbursement Rate on Referrals

Park Mingyu: "Don't Exclude Private Loan Firms; Consider Linking Products from Outstanding Companies"

In the first half of this year, only about 4% of loans referred through the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency's loan brokerage platform, "Inclusive Finance Itda," resulted in actual loans.

According to data the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency provided to Park Mingyu, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, the platform referred 1,498,168 loan products in the first half of this year. Of these, 60,082 loans were disbursed, putting the disbursement rate at 4.0% of referrals.

The rate fell by 1.3 percentage points from the second half of 2024 (5.3%) and by 1.4 percentage points from last year (5.4%).

The increase in disbursements was modest compared with the rise in referrals. Annual referral volume climbed 38%, from 1,082,503 in the second half of 2024 to 1,498,168 in the first half of this year, while the number of loans disbursed rose just 4%, from 57,892 to 60,082.

Rep. Park's office said the agency had focused on managing referral figures while neglecting to track disbursements in detail by credit score and financial product.

It also said the range of financial products linked to the platform should be expanded. Itda currently offers loans from savings banks and capital companies, but does not include a single product from an outstanding private loan company selected and managed by financial authorities.

Rep. Park's office said the agency agreed that outstanding private loan companies help prevent illegal private lending, but had taken a negative view of linking them to the platform. It added that although the agency cited the burden of high interest rates, rates on some savings bank and capital company products listed on Itda were not significantly different.

According to Rep. Park's office, the annual interest rates on private loan products listed on the private loan brokerage platform Finda are around 19% to 20%. By comparison, the average rates on products linked to Itda are 17.0% at OK Savings Bank, 17.2% at JB Woori Capital, and 18.6% at Korea Capital, while the maximum rates on some products are around 19.9%.

"The agency should not just track loan referrals. It needs to monitor disbursements by credit score and product so it can assess how much financial support is actually being provided," Rep. Park said.

He added, "We must ensure that people with low credit scores who have difficulty accessing mainstream financial services are not driven to illegal private lenders because they cannot find suitable loan products. Rather than excluding lenders across the board simply because they are private loan companies, the agency should also consider linking products from outstanding private loan companies selected and managed by financial authorities that meet consumer protection standards."

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