President Lee Jae-myung on the 3rd emphasized, "An illegal lend that exceeds the statutory limit is void."
On the morning of the day, President Lee shared on X (formerly Twitter) a post that Chairperson Lee Eog-weon of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) uploaded on SNS on the 28th, and stated accordingly. Chairperson Lee's post said that the Enforcement Decree of the Lending Business Act amendment passed the Cabinet meeting. The measure was prepared to protect financially vulnerable people driven into illegal private lending.
The amendment allows victims to report by specifying the damage, including illegal private lenders, illegal debt collection damage, and financial transaction records. Mentioning this, President Lee added, "In other words, it is fine not to repay."
Since taking office, President Lee has emphasized the need to provide relief for the financially vulnerable along with the harms of illegal private lending. At the senior secretaries and aides meeting in Aug. last year, Lee also noted, "For the financially vulnerable, excessive liability, the burden of repaying illegal private lending, and deposit-taking pressure have direct and indirect effects on suicide."
President Lee also said, "People's will to live must not be broken when banks serve public notice perfunctorily or fail to properly inform about the completion of the statute of limitations, causing debt to be passed down through illegal collections," and called on the financial sector to actively protect victims.