Finance

Korean banks received 2.68 million rate-cut requests in first half, up 77 percent

South Korea\'s banking sector received 2,679,000 requests in the first half of 2026 for loan rate cuts, up 77.0 percent from the previous half, as a mydata-business-based service began. Banks accepted 512,000 cases, up 22.5 percent, but the acceptance rate fell to 19.1 percent from 27.6 percent. Total interest reductions reached 73.43 billion won, up 0.8 percent.

Fintech

Banksalad says users of AI interest rate cut request service up 125 percent

Banksalad said users of its AI-based interest rate cut request service have more than doubled since the service launched in March. It said the number of customers using the service in July was up more than 125 percent from March. Banksalad also cited a case in which a customer reduced annual interest by 9.3 million won through an interest rate cut. The company said refinancing users also increased in July.