Major South Korean banks are reportedly raising mortgage interest rates to curb the surge in household loans, with increases ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 percentage points. KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank and Hana Bank will implement these hikes this week, marking the fifth such increase in a month and a half. These adjustments follow directives from the Financial Supervisory Service to stabilize household debt levels.

Despite efforts to tighten lending, household loans at the five major banks rose by more than $3 billion (about 4.2 trillion won) in the first half of August, reaching a total balance of about $540 billion (about 720 trillion won).