President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday pledged to address concerns that a private bad bank's non-participation in the government's debt relief program for ordinary citizens has left related debtors without help, saying, "I was unaware that such primitive predatory lending still openly survives and strangles the livelihoods of ordinary citizens."
Lee made the remarks on X, formerly Twitter, after sharing a link to a related news article. "I sincerely thank you for the report," he said. "Why has the relevant authority failed even to detect such an injustice until now? I will seek a solution at today's Cabinet meeting."
"There are limits even to economic activity or corporate profit-making," Lee stressed. "No matter how important money may be, these are our neighbors in a community where we must live together. Too much is as bad as too little."
The article Lee linked to pointed out that Sangnoksu, a private bad bank that handles non-performing loans, has not participated in the New Leap Fund — a government program that clears small delinquent debts to help overdue borrowers who have lost the ability to repay — leaving related debtors unable to benefit from debt relief.
The article also noted that the bad bank is a special purpose vehicle established by major domestic banks and credit card companies, and that each participating company has received approximately 42 billion won in dividends over the past five years.
