Search for the “stress DSR operating direction for the second half of 2026” and most people hit a wall: the title is not in the Financial Services Commission’s press releases. Adding site:fsc.go.kr does not help either. The document exists — it is just filed somewhere else. These figures are set by administrative guidance, not a release. This article says where that document is and what is written in it.
1. Where. The administrative guidance section of Korea’s financial regulation portal (better.fsc.go.kr), issued under article 9 of the Regulation on Financial Regulatory Operation.
2. What it is. Not a fresh document each time: one piece of guidance made in 2024 (reference 2024-002) that keeps being “amended and re-issued” with a new validity window.
3. The figures are in the attachment, not on the detail page.
It is not in the press-release list
Search by title and you find a release called “half-year stress DSR operating direction” — dated 25 June 2024, the last of its kind. The 2026 second-half version never entered that list, because administrative guidance is posted to the regulation portal rather than the newsroom.
What the document is
Guidance comes in two parts, a notice and the guidance in force. What binds is the second.
| Stage | Document | Number | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notice | Stage 3 stress DSR - notice of amended guidance | FSC notice 2026-362 | 18 June 2026 |
| In force | “Stress DSR” administrative guidance, amended | reference 2024-002 | valid 1 Jul - 31 Dec 2026 |
Note the reference: 2024-002. A 2024 number carrying the second half of 2026, because the validity window is extended rather than a new document issued. Effective date 15 October 2025, last extension 1 July 2026, in force 1 July to 31 December 2026. Owner: the Financial Policy Division of the Commission’s Financial Policy Bureau.
The figures inside — table 1
| Category | Stress rate | Base ratio | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital-area / regulated-zone mortgages | 3.0% | 100% (stage 3) | +3.00%p |
| Mortgages outside those areas | 1.5% | 50% (stage 2) | +0.75%p |
| Credit and other lending | 1.5% | 100% (stage 3) | +1.50%p |
The effective add-on is the stress rate multiplied by the base ratio. A capital-area mortgage carries four times what a mortgage elsewhere does and twice what credit lending does. The window is 1 July to 31 December 2026, on the same figures as the preceding half-year.
How the stress rate is made
The attachment sets out the method in three steps.
- 1. Compute — the highest rate of the past five years minus the current rate, settled twice a year, in June and December, where “current” means the May and November figure. The benchmark is the weighted average rate on new household lending at deposit-taking banks (Bank of Korea).
- 2. Floor — 3.0% or more for capital-area and regulated-zone mortgages, officetels included; a 1.5% to 3.0% range for everything else.
- 3. Halve — mortgages outside those areas take the step-1 rate × 50%. Table 1 puts that at 1.5%, which reads back as a step-1 rate of 3.0% this half-year.
A wording note: press releases say “regional”, the attachment says “outside the capital area and the regulated zones” — and a property inside the capital area but not in a regulated zone can fall differently under the two. The attachment is what binds. Why the structure has so many layers is set out from the statute up in Korea’s 40% DSR is not in the statute.
Then it splits again by loan type
All of the above yields the stress rate. Sizing an actual limit multiplies it once more by a loan-type ratio: 100% for a variable-rate mortgage, and for mixed or periodic-reset products a figure that depends on how much of the term is fixed.
| Fixed period ÷ term | Mixed | Periodic reset |
|---|---|---|
| Variable, or fixed under 5 years | 100% | 100% |
| Fixed share under 30% | 80% (stage 2: 60%) | 40% (stage 2: 30%) |
| 30 to 50% | 60% (stage 2: 40%) | 30% (stage 2: 20%) |
| 50 to 70% | 40% (stage 2: 20%) | 20% (stage 2: 10%) |
| 70% or more | not applied | not applied |
※ Brackets show the stage-2 figure. Mortgages outside the capital area and the regulated zones take the stage-2 ratios here too, to 31 December 2026. These values were checked against the attachment and match the May 2025 release. For credit loans, a fixed-rate loan with a term of five years or more is exempt; among other lending, only officetel-secured loans follow the mortgage method, the rest follow the credit-loan one.
Whether fixed or variable actually suits you is easier to settle on total interest than on headroom — put both into the loan repayment calculator.
The contract date decides the regime
Page 2 of the attachment collects the transitional rule attached to each stage. They share a shape: a sale contract signed and the deposit evidenced by the date, or a site whose occupant recruitment notice had issued, keeps a later completion loan on the previous rules.
| Stage | In force | Contract and deposit | You stay on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | 26 Feb 2024 - 31 Aug 2024 | by 25 Feb 2024 | no stress DSR |
| Stage 2 | 1 Sep 2024 - 30 Jun 2025 | by 31 Aug 2024 | the stage-1 rules |
| Stage 3 | 1 Jul 2025 - 15 Oct 2025 | by 30 Jun 2025 | the stage-2 rules |
| 15 Oct package | 16 Oct 2025 onwards | by 15 Oct 2025 | the previous rules |
The last row is the one that bites most often. The 15 October package is what took capital-area mortgages from 1.5% to 3.0%, so the same flat at the same bank can carry double the stress rate on the strength of one date. Bring the contract and the deposit transfer record when you ask.
※ For non-residential property the date is the sales advertisement; with no occupant-recruitment notice or advertisement, the construction-start filing; for redevelopment or reconstruction association members, the management-disposal authorisation; and for housing under the land-transaction permit system, the date the permit application was filed.
What this document is not
DSR gets confusing because three different documents meet in the same sentence.
- The 40% and 50% ratios are not in this guidance but in the appended tables to the supervisory regulations — banking table 6, insurance 21, savings banks 5, mutual finance 2, specialised credit 3. Changing them takes an amendment.
- The method of computation (the assessed term for credit and other loans, how income is recognised) sits in the rulebook set by the FSS Governor. That is where calculators diverge — ours leaves the assessed term as an editable box for that reason.
- Volume targets (1.5% household credit growth for 2026) belong to the household debt management plan. Your DSR can clear and the loan still not appear, because the bank’s own annual allowance is full.
So the layer that keeps moving is the stress rate — the only one that changes by notice rather than amendment, and it is reset every half-year.
Where readers usually get stuck
Do I actually pay the stress rate?
No. The Commission’s own bracket reads “not charged on the actual loan rate”. The rate is inflated only while the limit is being sized.
Does it hit credit loans?
Only where the total balance exceeds KRW 100m — the attachment says so in a footnote. And a fixed-rate credit loan with a term of five years or more is exempt.
Is a loan I already have recomputed at 3.0%?
No. The stress rate is used to size a limit when the loan is newly extended; it does not apply retroactively. But an increase, re-agreement or refinancing can count as new — check with the bank.
When do the 2027 figures appear?
The figures above run to 31 December 2026. The next set arrives as administrative guidance on the portal, not as a press release — and since the rate is settled twice a year, in June and December, December is when to look.
Sources
- FSC administrative guidance — the notice — “Stage 3 stress DSR, notice of amended administrative guidance”, FSC notice 2026-362 (18 June 2026), on the financial regulation portal (better.fsc.go.kr) under administrative guidance → notices. Issued under article 9 of the Regulation on Financial Regulatory Operation.
- FSC administrative guidance — in force — “Stress DSR” administrative guidance, amended, reference 2024-002. Effective 15 October 2025, last extended 1 July 2026, in force 1 July to 31 December 2026, owned by the Financial Policy Division. The three rows of table 1 here are its figures.
- The attachment to the guidance in force — “260701_stage 3 stress DSR amended guidance” (posted 30 June 2026, two pages). Source for the institutions and loans covered, the method of computing the stress rate, the 3.0% floor and the 1.5–3.0% range, the × 50% outside the capital area, the loan-type ratio table, the KRW 100m credit-loan threshold, the officetel treatment and the four transitional rules.
- FSC policy Q&A — FAQ on the 15 October housing market measures. Source for “40% at banks, 50% at non-banks, the same in regulated areas” and “not charged on the actual loan rate”.
Where to check further
- Which column your own loan lands in. It turns on what share of the term is fixed — read it off the product sheet or ask your bank, and settle the transitional question at the same time by bringing the contract date.
- The assessed term and income recognition. Neither is in the guidance; both sit in the FSS Governor’s rulebook, which we have not read. Where the arithmetic goes wrong in practice is collected in the common DSR mistakes.
- Beyond 2026. The figures are reset each half-year — look for the next notice under administrative guidance on the portal.
Written as at September 2026. The document numbers, dates and validity window, table 1, the loan-type ratios and the transitional rules come from the guidance and its attachment; the effective add-ons (+3.00, +0.75 and +1.50 points) and the “four times, twice” comparison are our own arithmetic. What any individual loan is offered rests on the bank’s own assessment.
