개인채무자보호법안의 주요내용 및 한계

Abstract

Korean household debt, including security deposits not counted in international statistics, is estimated to be 2,925.3 trillion won in 2022, with the highest household debt-to-GDP ratio among the 31 OECD countries, according to recent analysis. The Bank of Korea's Financial Stability Report states that the financial soundness of households is favorable as of 2022, but policy support for vulnerable borrowers may be necessary if external factors such as continued increases in the base interest rate persist. The government established a debt restructuring system through the Credit Recovery Committee to help recover the creditworthiness of delinquent borrowers after experiencing the IMF foreign exchange crisis and credit card crisis. However, there was a lack of comprehensive laws to protect debtors during the individual processes of debt restructuring or collection, depending on the circumstances. In October 2019, the Financial Services Commission established a task force for improving the “Personal Delinquency Debt Management System,” and in September 2020, it announced a legislative proposal for the “Consumer Credit Act.” Recently, in December 2022, it proposed the “Individual Financial Debt Management and Protection Act” to protect individual financial debtors. The Personal Debtor Protection Bill introduces various measures, such as establishing the right to request debt restructuring, preventing unlimited expansion of debt burden, and easing collection pressure, which are expected to be of great help in protecting individual financial debtors. Therefore, this article briefly examines the current debt restructuring system and analyzes the main contents of the Individual Financial Debt Management and Protection Act, proposing improvement directions for enhancing the effectiveness of debtor protection.