South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service plans to restrict the issuance of standard credit loans to active-duty soldiers this year.

On November 15 that, according to an announcement from the Korea Financial Supervisory Service, the agency plans to finalize industry standards for lending business operations by year-end, restricting lenders from issuing ordinary credit loans to active-duty soldiers to prevent excessive debt. Existing standards for mortgages and emergency loans will remain unchanged.

Regulators stated that the total loan volume extended to active-duty soldiers by the top 30 lenders registered with the Financial Services Commission increased from 350 million won at the end of 2022 to 24.2 billion won at the end of 2025. Irrational capital deployment in high-risk investments such as online gambling and cryptocurrency assets is considered one of the main contributing factors.