대부이자의 상한규제에 대한 비교법적 고찰

Moneylender offers small personal loans at high rates of interest, usually higher than rates than the market rate charged on credit cards or on bank overdrafts. They usually do business with those who cannot get more money from banks, legitimate consumer loans, or credit cards. Hence, ‘the Moneylender Law’ in Korea requires registration in each province and set the maximum interest rate at 49% per Annum for a registrated moneylender, while the unregistered moneylender and private individual cannot impose interest at more than 30% per annum under the law of interest rate ceiling. Therefore the question of whether to harmonization usury restrictions lies at the heart of the debates over moneylending regulation. Advocates of strengthening of the interest rate for the registrated moneylender argue that moneylender are exploiting low-income borrowers, making huge profits while the lure these families into financial traps from which they can never emerge. Opponents note the benefits of expanding credit to low-income borrowers. This Debate has continued for more than decades, but until now no one has studied the social background and has not give an broad comparative legal viewpoint. This paper presents a comparative study on ceiling of interest rate in moneylending. The findings suggest that interest rate ceiling for moneylender should reduce into the interest cap for the private individual under the ‘Law of Interest Rate’, because the contradiction of dual interest rate ceiling system is not helpful to provide protection for especially low-income families, as it would be more useful.