Lawmakers have proposed bills to regulate peer-to-peer lending and cryptocurrencies, but the bills have gained little momentum in the National Assembly, industry watchers said Monday.
Rep. Min Byung-doo of the ruling Democratic Party and Rep. Kim Su-min of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party filed two separate bills to regulate P2P lending firms in July last year and in February, respectively.
With the bills still pending in the National Assembly, financial authorities have been struggling to tackle abusive and deceptive P2P lending practices.
(Yonhap)
On June 14, Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Kim Yong-beom said disputes between investors and P2P lending firms were on the rise and that some P2P firms were raising funds illegally.
Lax regulation on entry into the P2P sector is one of the reasons for such problems, Kim said.
Currently, P2P lending firms are largely unregulated, but financial authorities plan to begin exercising oversight of such businesses, the vice chairman said.
P2P lending is a new type of loan extension to individuals or businesses through social network services or the Internet. It covers a wide range of services, including loans to startups and self-employed businessmen.
Although the nation's fever for cryptocurrency trading has fallen off, digital currency exchanges have become more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Last week, Bithumb, the nation's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said it lost 35 billion won ($31.5 million) worth of cryptocurrencies in a hacking attack.
In March, Rep. Je Youn-kyung of the Democratic Party proposed a bill to tighten online security rules for all cryptocurrency exchanges, but that bill is also pending in parliament. (Yonhap)
