Homeplus has strongly protested Samsung Card and Hyundai Card’s decision to suspend merchant payments, demanding an immediate withdrawal. Consumer confusion is mounting as notices were posted at some offline stores indicating that payments with these card companies may be temporarily unavailable.<\/p>\n
On the 6th, Homeplus stated in an official release: “Following the Seoul Bankruptcy Court’s decision to terminate the rehabilitation procedure, we received notifications from Hyundai Card and Samsung Card regarding the termination of online mall point partnership agreements and the suspension and offset of online and offline merchant payments.” The company added, “The decision to terminate the rehabilitation procedure only takes effect once it is finalized, and an immediate appeal is possible within 14 days of the public notice, meaning the rehabilitation procedure is still ongoing. The card companies’ actions based on this lack the necessary legal requirements.”<\/p>\n
Homeplus also emphasized that there is no substantive reason to withhold merchant payments. The company countered, “Offline stores cannot make credit purchases, and the online mall is also unable to process order cancellations due to the business suspension. It is difficult to accept the withholding of payments on the grounds of outstanding receivables or sales cancellations.”<\/p>\n
Starting that afternoon, notices reading “Samsung and Hyundai Card Payments Temporarily Unavailable” began appearing at Homeplus offline stores in major areas including Seoul. Store employees conveyed that “payments will be briefly suspended starting tomorrow,” while some stores informed customers that “normal payments are possible today.” Homeplus drew a line regarding the situation, stating it was “requesting customer cooperation as Samsung and Hyundai Card usage may be temporarily difficult,” and clarified that “this is not a boycott.”<\/p>\n
Conversely, Samsung Card and Hyundai Card expressed bewilderment. Representatives from both companies commonly stated that “the card companies never notified Homeplus of any payment suspension.” While it is true that the card companies notified Homeplus of the merchant payment suspension, they explained that no measures were taken to block consumer payments themselves.<\/p>\n
This conflict was triggered on the 3rd when the Seoul Bankruptcy Court decided to terminate Homeplus’s rehabilitation procedure. The court judged that the rehabilitation plan submitted by Homeplus was not feasible, citing the inability to secure external funding among other reasons. In response, the card companies sent official notices to Homeplus stating they would suspend merchant payments and offset existing outstanding receivables and sales cancellations. Homeplus is concerned that normal operations may become difficult if the card companies’ payment suspension continues. A company representative said, “If card payment collections are blocked, business operations themselves become impossible. With all employees striving for rehabilitation until the very end, the card companies must immediately withdraw their payment suspension measures.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, financial authorities have prepared emergency financial support measures to prevent the Homeplus situation from spreading damage to partner companies. On the 6th, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission held a “Homeplus Financial Sector Response Review Meeting” chaired by Secretary-General Shin Jin-chang, with participation from the Financial Supervisory Service, the Korea Federation of Banks, five major commercial banks, Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, and the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund to discuss support measures for partner companies.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund decided to newly include small and medium-sized enterprises affected by Homeplus under the “crisis response special guarantee” program, in preparation for the possibility that unsettled supplier payments may be prolonged due to the termination of the rehabilitation procedure. The special guarantee will operate at a scale of up to 300 billion won (approximately $195.7 million), with the guarantee limit for eligible companies expanded from 300 million won to 500 million won (approximately $326,247), and the guarantee ratio raised from 85% to 90%. The guarantee fee rate will also be reduced by 0.5 percentage points.<\/p>\n
The Korea Credit Guarantee Fund’s crisis response special guarantee was established in May last year to support companies affected by U.S. tariff measures and industrial crises. It simplifies procedures through general screening and significantly lowers the guarantee fee rate, which is typically over 1%, thereby reducing the financing burden on partner companies. The Korea Credit Guarantee Fund plans to finalize internal procedures and begin accepting special guarantee applications from that day, aiming to supply funds quickly through branches nationwide.<\/p>\n
The Financial Supervisory Service will continue operating its existing “Homeplus Supplier and Tenant Financial Difficulty Consultation Center” while strengthening coordination with consultation channels at related agencies such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Small Enterprise and Market Service. Through this, it plans to reorganize the process so that partner companies and workers can receive one-stop consultations without having to visit multiple agencies.<\/p>\n
The banking sector has continued financial support for partner companies for approximately one year and four months since the initiation of Homeplus’s rehabilitation procedure in March last year. To date, banks have supported a total of 4.89 trillion won (approximately $3.2 billion) in maturity extensions (4,454 cases) centered on accounts receivable-backed loans, 122.3 billion won (approximately $79.8 million) in repayment deferrals (2,999 cases), and supplied 15.8 billion won (approximately $10.3 million) in new funds (93 cases) to partner companies in need of emergency operating capital. Secretary-General Shin Jin-chang urged, “Please continue to carefully address the financial difficulties of small and medium-sized partner companies through maturity extensions and repayment deferrals going forward.”<\/p>\n
The agencies participating in the meeting plan to continuously monitor the support situation for Homeplus partner companies and workers, centered on the interagency task force currently operating at the pan-government level, and review whether additional support is necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homeplus has strongly protested Samsung Card and Hyundai Card’s decision to suspend merchant payments, demanding an immediate withdrawal.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[41714,5778,295,10273,294,293,5252,41713,5341,41712,38964,9527,39469],"class_list":["post-76781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hyundai","tag-crisis-response-special-guarantee","tag-homeplus","tag-hyundai","tag-hyundai-card","tag-hyundai-group","tag-hyundai-motor-group","tag-korea-credit-guarantee-fund","tag-merchant-payment-suspension","tag-partner-companies","tag-rehabilitation-procedure-termination","tag-samsung-card","tag-seoul-bankruptcy-court","tag-south-koreas-financial-services-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}