Japanese lenders dominate local private market

Japanese capital has increasingly penetrated Korea’s private money lending business despite its high interest rate, reaching over 40 percent of the market, data showed Sunday.

The assets of Japan’s top four private money lenders ― Apro Financial Group, Sanwa Money, Miz Sarang and KJI Capital ― totaled 4.3 trillion won ($3.9 billion) as of the end of June last year, according to a report submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to the National Assembly.

This accounted for 42.2 percent of South Korea’s money lending market, and the recent figure is likely to have risen further over the past year, officials said.

Apro Financial Group had an unrivaled lead with 2.5 trillion won in assets and a 27.7 percent market share.

The group owns Apro Financial Group, which operates private lender Rush & Cash and OK Savings Bank, and Miz Sarang, a female-exclusive lending company.

Runner-up Sanwa Money came second with 1.2 trillion in assets and a 12.4 percent market share.

Korean-based Welcome Loan ranked third in the market with 706 billion won in assets, but its market share was less than 7 percent, falling far behind its Japanese competitors.

The Japanese domination was also conspicuous in the savings bank sector.

The aggregated assets owned by the top five savings banks, whose majority shareholders are Japanese capital companies, reached 7.5 trillion won or 19.8 percent of the money lending industry here, FSS data showed.

The frontrunner was SBI Savings Bank, which owned 3.8 trillion won or 10 percent of the total market share.

“The domination of Japanese private lenders is alarming as they are likely to seek profits without consideration of the government’s financial policies or the public interest,” said Hwang Ju-hong, a lawmaker of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)