서민금융서비스 소비자문제와 제도개선 방안 연구

This research report examines consumer issues on consumer financial service in four categories. In an effort to improve current consumer policy, it investigates and analyzes various problems that many consumers face when they use the service. An introduction and chapter 2 of this report provide a general view on consumer financial service and related consumer issues. As a theoretical approach to the consumer financial service, this report defines who would be included in a group of so called the financial exclusion. Other information on consumer financial system, such as its history, supporting programs, and related laws, are also provided. Also, it examines the consumer financial service in the matter of consumer protection. In chapter 3, main consumer issues on consumer financial service in developed countries, such as Japan and the United States is demonstrated. Therefore, in chapter 6, it was possible to suggest how to improve consumer policy or protect consumers in advance by examining the way those countries deal with the problems. In chapter 4 and 5, detailed information on consumer financial service users is given by providing several case studies and results of our survey. The data from Korea Consumer Agency during past five years was used to show actual consumers complains. Also, the survey conducted for people who used consumer financial service before shows consumers’ general awareness and utilization of the system. Finally, in chapter 6, the main consumer issues are defined and administrative suggestions and other means to improve those issues are indicated by considering overall information from previous chapters. The issues that this report deals with are described below: the consumer’s difficulties in using legal financial institutions, high interest of private financial service and consumer’s high dependence on it, debt overhang, and problems regarding to multiple liabilities and default of obligation. Consequently, it is concluded that, first, it is necessary to expand consumers’ opportunities to use legal financial service by providing ① continuous support for governmental programs, and ② proper responds to people based on their wants and needs. Second, the necessities of ① providing information on interest rates of consumer financial services, and ② decreasing maximum level of the interest rate are discussed. Imposing a strict sanction on any illegal behavior is also discussed to ease off high dependence on private financial service which usually imposes high interests on consumers. Third, as an effort to control debt overhang, it is necessary to ① consider a debtor’s will to pay off the liability, ② impose a limitation on amount of money that a debtor can borrow, ③ tighten regulations on any illegal behavior, such as violent debt collection, and ④ educate consumers in advance about liabilities. Lastly, in order to provide enough information to consumers, financial institutions’ responsibilities were discussed since the institutions have much more information than consumers. This report contains data on major consumer issues along with a recent trend of various countries including Korea, Japan, and the United States. Moreover, the chapter 6 provides several administrative suggestions. For these reasons, it is expected that this report to be used as a valuable source for government and policy makers in the future.