Park Seong-hoon "Local finance that frustrates the common people... We must not just focus on the size of supply."

Park Seong-hoon "Local finance that frustrates the common people... We must not just focus on the size of supply."

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Mina Ryu = It was found that more than one in five applicants for 'Sunshine Loan Youth', a microfinance product for college students and job seekers, were rejected after failing to pass the loan screening threshold.

According to data submitted by People Power Party lawmaker Park Seong-hoon, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, from the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency on the 27th, the number of applications for Sunshine Loan Youth in the first half of the year was 51,604, but it was found that one in five people did not receive a loan.

Over the past five years, the rejection rate has increased from 15.0% in 2022 to 21.5% in 2023 and 28.5% in 2024. It fell to 18.9% last year, but rose again to 20.5% in the first half of this year.

The situation was similar for other policy microfinance products.

As of the end of June this year, the number of applications for Sunshine Loan general and special guarantees was 350,562 and 331,878, respectively, exceeding 680,000 in just half a year, but the rejection rates were 15.6% and 15.9%, respectively. One in six applicants did not receive a loan.

Rep. Park said, "Corporate finance should be a safety net that reaches out as a last resort to people who have difficulty crossing the bank threshold, but instead, it is frustrating the common people twice. Instead of just touting the scale of supply, we need to check whether the funds are actually reaching the people who are in desperate need."