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As household loan conditions by banks have become complicated due to additional loan regulations by financial authorities and reversal of the Touhe system, end-users are turning to provinces with relatively low loan hurdles. As a result, concerns are raised in the market about the concentration of loans to local banks due to the balloon effect.

According to the financial sector on the 28th, local banks do not have separate handling restrictions, and interest rates are lower than commercial banks.

The average interest rate of the five major commercial banks based on installment repayment mortgage loans (more than 10 years of maturity) handled in January, as confirmed on the Korea Federation of Banks' consumer portal, is 4.44%. At the same time, the average interest rate of the five major local banks is 4.22%, 0.22 percentage points lower than the average of commercial banks.

By company, commercial banks were the highest in the order of Hana Bank at 4.57%, Woori Bank at 4.52%, Shinhan Bank at 4.49%, NH Nonghyup Bank at 4.35%, and KB Kookmin Bank at 4.25%.

In the case of local banks, Jeju Bank 4.54%, Jeonbuk Bank 4.39%, BNK Busan Bank 4.14%, BNK Gyeongnam Bank 4.04%, and Gwangju Bank 4.01%.

This year, local banks were given more generous household loan limits than commercial banks.

Last month, the Financial Services Commission announced a plan to manage household debt in 2025 to give local banks and second-tier financial institutions some leeway in order to smoothly supply funds to provinces where unsold houses are accumulating.

Commercial banks regulate the growth rate of household loans (excluding policy loans) at 1-2%, but local banks have a margin of 5-6%.

As this policy aims to revitalize the local economy, it is expected that local banks will have more capacity to execute more loans if they increase local mortgage loans.

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As a result, some are concerned about the concentration of loans to local banks, which have more leeway in lending than commercial banks.

In fact, when the financial authorities tightened household loan regulations on major banks last year, there was a balloon effect of increasing the balance of loans from local banks.

When the balance of household loans from the five major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup) increased by 1.11 trillion won from the previous month in October last year, household loans from local banks, Inbang, and secondary financial sectors more than quadrupled compared to major banks during the same period.

An official from a local bank said, "We have not yet confirmed any side effects from differential management of household loans, such as the phenomenon of concentration to branches in the metropolitan area of local banks. As the authorities' policy is focused on rebuilding the local economy, not for the preferential treatment of local banks, we should focus our capabilities on managing the quality of loans."