S.Korean banks told to support risky debtors

South Korea wants to prevent bank customers from becoming credit delinquents via a pre-workout program.

Banks have run a pre-workout program worth about 10.3 trillion won ($9.5 billion) for about 150,000 potential credit delinquents in 2012, the Financial Supervisory Service said .

Debts will be rescheduled to reduce heavy payment burdens on individuals and corporate customers, who suffer from cash flow problems.

Key methods include rollover of payment dues and lower interest.

According to FSS data, KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank were most active in carrying out the pre-workout program in 2012, covering the largest amount of debt redemption, Meanwhile, Korean branches of international banks Citibank and Standard Charted Bank were at the bottom of the FSS’ pre-workout performance chart.

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