The head of South Korea's financial regulator on Monday discussed ways to promote financial cooperation between Seoul and Paris in a meeting with French lawmakers. Kim Byoung-hwan, head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), met with a six-member delegation from the Finance Committee of the French Senate, led by Committee Chair Claude Raynal, according to the FSC. The French lawmakers first congratulated Kim on his recent appointment as the chief financial regulator, and said they were on a two-nation trip to South Korea and Japan to learn about the countries' efforts to manage their national debts. They noted France's household debts stood at 63 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2023 but that its corporate debts were at 150.4 percent. Kim explained the country is working tirelessly to address four major financial risks -- real estate project financing loans, household debts, loans to small businesses and fiscal soundness of the secondary banking sector -- according to the FSC. He added the country is pushing to limit the rise in household debts partly by requiring lenders to base their loan decisions strictly on the borrowers' capacity to repay. Kim and Raynal agreed to continue sharing information on household and corporate debts in their respective countries, along with their policy directions, while expressing hopes for increased cooperation and exchange between the countries in the financial sector, the FSC said. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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