South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) published a government work report setting out its 2026 policy agendas to pursue a “sweeping overhaul of finance” across productive, inclusive and reliable finance. The plan builds on 2025 actions ranging from large-scale debt relief and small-merchant support to enhanced market surveillance and reforms intended to reorient finance away from real estate concentration and towards productive investment. On productive finance, the National Growth Fund will begin funding support of KRW150 trillion over five years, supplying KRW30 trillion annually from 2026, with seven megaproject targets in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and secondary batteries; policy finance guarantees and an “AI transformation” in finance are also flagged. Regional finance allocations by policy financial institutions are set to rise from 40 percent in 2025 to 45 percent in 2028, alongside gradual expansion of climate policy finance and preparation of ESG disclosure standards and a roadmap aligned with the nationally determined contribution goal for 2035; the FSC also points to a small-merchant credit model, integrated information platform and supply-chain finance. Capital markets priorities include measures to bolster KOSDAQ confidence and expand growth-capital channels through security token offerings, a venture capital trading platform and an electronic registry for unlisted stocks, while inclusive finance proposals include new microfinance products in the 3 to 6 percent range, including KRW5 million loans at 4.5 percent for young adults and vulnerable groups, tripling annual microloan supply for debt-workout completers to KRW420 billion, and reducing the anti-illegal private lending loan interest burden from 15.9 percent to 6.3 percent or 5 percent depending on qualifications. On reliable finance, the agenda includes continued household debt controls (including debt service ratio-based management), a permanent stock manipulation response team and reforms covering treasury shares, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs of split-off subsidiaries, disclosure and the stewardship code, plus proposed digital finance safety legislation with punitive fines and joint cybersecurity drills; additional consumer measures include a one-stop support system for victims of illegal private lending and further upgrades to the AI-based Anti-phishing Sharing and Analysis platform. Next steps include establishing a joint public-private consultation body to monitor progress and pursue regulatory reforms, starting National Growth Fund annual deployments from 2026, and launching a non-taxable youth future savings program in June 2026; the regional finance allocation target runs through 2028.

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