Core Viewpoint - The credit card default rate in South Korea reached its highest level in a decade during the first quarter of this year, primarily due to prolonged economic stagnation [1] Group 1: Credit Card Default Rates - Major credit card issuers in South Korea, including Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, and Hana Bank, reported an increase in the proportion of credit cards overdue by more than one month in Q1 [1] - Hana Bank's credit card default rate hit 2.15%, the highest since December 2014 [1] - KB Kookmin Bank's credit card default rate rose to 1.61%, the highest level since the end of 2014 [1] - Shinhan Bank's credit card default rate also reached 1.61%, the highest since Q3 2015 [1]

Group 1: Credit Card Default Rates - South Korea's major credit card default rates have reached the highest level in a decade in Q1 2023 due to prolonged economic downturn [1] - Hana Card's default rate is 2.15%, up 0.21 percentage points from the previous quarter and 0.28 percentage points from the same period last year, marking the highest since its issuance in December 2014 [1] - Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Card both have default rates of 1.61%, the highest since the end of 2014 and Q3 2015 respectively [1] Group 2: Loan Default Rates - As of the end of February, the overdue loan rate for Korean banks reached 0.58%, an increase of 0.05 percentage points from the previous month and 0.07 percentage points from the same period last year, the highest since November 2018 [1] - The financial pressure on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual business owners is increasing due to weak domestic demand and high interest rates [1] Group 3: Economic Outlook - Continuous cash flow issues have led to rising loan default rates among individual business owners, with expectations of further increases as the operating conditions worsen for SMEs [2] - South Korea's economy has shown signs of weakness in 2024, with declines in production, consumption, and investment [2] - Various institutions, including the Bank of Korea, have downgraded the economic growth forecast for 2025 to 1.9%, with further concerns for 2026 at only 1.8% [2]