PPP's Ahn calls KB Kookmin Bank 'JM Myung Bank' over halved mortgage limit

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo on Monday criticized KB Kookmin Bank for being the first to cut off customers' access to credit while deferring to the Lee Jae Myung government, calling it "a bank that has betrayed the people."

Writing on Facebook that day, Ahn said KB Kookmin Bank had slashed its mortgage loan limit in half, from 600 million won ($399,000) to 300 million won. Other commercial banks have since followed suit by tightening their own lending standards, spreading what he called a "loan-slashing" trend across the country, he said.

"The dream of ordinary working people and the middle class — who were trying to buy even a small, two-bedroom home of their own — has been shattered overnight," Ahn said, invoking a Korean proverb that a middleman overseer can be crueler than the landlord himself.

He added that KB, having "cut off and betrayed the people," had forfeited the right to carry the word "national" in its name, and that renaming itself "JM Myung Bank" would not be out of place.

Ahn went on to say the government should at minimum exempt first-time buyers and owner-occupiers with no existing property from aggregate loan caps, and that KB should have prepared measures for such customers before cutting loan limits. He also called for an overhaul of the loan screening system based on repayment capacity, and for mandatory advance notice and transitional measures whenever lending regulations change, so that customers can plan ahead.

"The foundation of any real estate policy is guaranteeing every citizen's right to own a home," Ahn said. "If the Lee Jae Myung government's real estate policy fails, KB will go down in history as having led the charge in stripping people of that basic right."