00:02A 40-year mortgage was built to open the door for young buyers, but new lending data shows
00:08it barely moved. A dollar-pegged crypto token created by a Korean
00:15issuer collapsed to near zero after a hacking incident. KB Financial Group is putting real
00:21money behind unicorn startups with a new fund. One bank is running an AI assistant that tells
00:28you exactly how much cash to gift at a wedding and where to send it. And despite a wave of
00:34data breaches, most companies still aren't buying cyber insurance. It's Tuesday, July
00:4028th. Let's break down what's happening in Korea's financial sector.
00:45Shinhan Bank rolled out a 40-year fixed-rate mortgage last month, aimed at giving young
00:50borrowers lower monthly payments over a longer horizon. Regulators have also been tightening
00:56debt-service ratio rules, which cuts the maximum loan size for many applicants regardless of
01:02the mortgage's term. At the same time, a separate shock hit the crypto side of finance when hackers
01:08minted unauthorized tokens on a dollar-pegged coin issued by WeMade. Here's what the numbers show.
01:16WeMix dollar crashed from $1 to $0.0008 after hackers minted about 7.6 billion won, roughly
01:25$5.5 million in unauthorized tokens. WeMix issuers responded by resetting the token supply down to
01:34about 0.0008 times its original size. Shinhan's new 40-year mortgage carries a 5.06% rate, up 0
01:45.75 to
01:461.12 percentage points from five years ago, even as the product was designed to ease payments for
01:52young buyers. The five major banks' fixed mortgage rates now span 4.86% to 6.58%, with variable rates
02:02at
02:024.09% to 6.58%. KB Financial Group's new 150 billion won, about $108 million unicorn fund, starts deploying
02:16capital this quarter, expanding bank exposure to early-stage startup risk. Hana Bank expanded its mobile
02:23senior consulting tour to 44 local governments in June, up from a slower start in March.
02:30So what does this mean for anyone managing financial risk in Korea? Earlier, we said a 40-year mortgage
02:37was built to open the door for young buyers. Here's what that actually means for you. The product's own
02:43pricing has drifted higher over five years, narrowing the very affordability gap it was meant to close.
02:49For compliance teams, the WeMix dollar collapse is a reminder that stablecoin-style tokens issued without
02:56banking-grade custody controls can lose their peg entirely within hours. Watch whether regulators
03:02tie capital reviews to bank-linked venture funds like KB's, since startup exposure sits outside
03:08traditional credit risk models. What to watch? Financial authorities' response to the WeMix dollar
03:15token incident, expected in the coming weeks. Shinhan and Peer Bank's next mortgage rate adjustments
03:21tied to debt-service ratio policy reviews. Cyber insurance uptake figures in the next quarterly
03:28report from the financial regulator. That's today's AI Prism, Finance Daily. This episode was produced
03:35with AI assistance based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting and reviewed by a human editor.
03:41AI Prism is a Juan Ifra Award-winning series. We'll be back tomorrow.
