-->Tuesday, November 25, 2003

LG Card averts liquidity crisis as creditor banks extend loans


REUTERS in Seoul

South Korea's largest credit-card issuer, LG Card, resumed cash advances to customers yesterday after creditors agreed to extend emergency loans, averting a liquidity crunch that threatened the country's financial system.

Debt-laden LG Card was forced to suspend cash advances at the weekend, raising the spectre of a spiralling series of defaults as many Koreans use their credit cards to pay bills and service other credit-card debts.


Finance Minister Kim Jin-pyo said the government had intervened to encourage creditors to provide the emergency loans and praised their"wise decision". His deputy, Bahk Byong-won, said LG Card's problems were not industry-wide....