Loans to Borrowers with Low to Mid-Range Credit Scores Near 95%—Online Investment-Linked Finance Firms Fill the Financial Sector’s “Interest-Rate Gap”

[Financial News] Online investment-linked finance (OIF), which has focused on providing loans to borrowers with low to mid-range credit scores, is in fact playing a role in filling the interest-rate gap. It is credited with advancing financial inclusion while maintaining sound asset quality by providing funds at relatively low rates and keeping delinquency rates at around 1%.
According to the Online Investment-Linked Finance Association on the 10th, private-sector loans in the mid-interest-rate segment accounted for 94.8% of lending by the six OIF firms participating in financial-institution-linked investments—MoneyMove, Mouda, Honest AI, Eight Percent, PFCT and Hanpass Financial—as of the end of September.
That figure was well above the 32.4–38.4% share of new credit loans supplied to borrowers with low to mid-range credit scores by the three internet-only banks in the second quarter, as reported to the Korea Federation of Banks. The average credit score of borrowers at the six OIF firms was 686 on the KCB scale, and 45.0% of loans went to borrowers with scores of 675 or below—the bottom 10%.
Even as the firms issued loans to borrowers with relatively low credit scores, they maintained sound asset quality. At the end of September this year, the six firms’ delinquency rate on personal credit loans was 1.09% (delinquencies of 30 days or more, including claims under personal rehabilitation proceedings). Excluding those claims, the rate falls to 0.76%.
This ability to manage defaults was also linked to lower loan rates. The six firms’ average annual lending rate was 11.72%, 2.95 percentage points below the 14.67% average for personal credit loans across the savings bank sector. An OIF industry representative said the firms were “providing funds to borrowers with low to mid-range credit scores at reasonable rates, while offering a new ‘interest-rate ladder’ that eases the rate gap in the traditional financial sector.”
In one case, a male office worker in his 50s with a KCB credit score of 538 consolidated 22 credit-card loans from two card companies, which carried a weighted average annual rate of 16.87%, into a single loan at an annual rate of 10.3% through OIF, reducing his rate by 6.57 percentage points.
Loan volumes are also gradually increasing. Over the one year and four months from the end of May last year to the end of September 2026, the six firms originated a cumulative 811.4 billion won in personal credit loans. They served a total of 53,038 new borrowers. Monthly new originations grew 36-fold, from 2.75 billion won in May last year to 99.94 billion won this September.
The OIF industry was launched in 2015 with the goal of addressing the interest-rate gap in the traditional financial sector. It was brought into the formal financial system following the enactment of the OIF Act in 2019 and its implementation in 2020. After continuing consultations with financial authorities and the savings bank sector, the industry reached a turning point in July 2024, when it was designated an innovative financial service. Financial-institution-linked investment services began in May the following year.
Based on the highest figure for each of the six firms, the number of savings banks participating in linked investments rose from five in May last year to 20 this September. The average monthly investment per savings bank also increased, from 213 million won to 2.519 billion won.
“Financial inclusion is the starting point and reason for OIF’s existence,” said Hong Jae-moon, chairman of the Online Investment-Linked Finance Association. “That is also why OIF firms have worked to use advanced technology to provide mid-interest-rate loans at annual rates in the 10% range.”

[email protected] Kim Tae-il Reporter