Kim Eun-kyung, chairperson of South Korea's Credit Counseling and Recovery Service, proposed "financial basic rights" as a new paradigm for finance during a visit to the United States.
The Credit Counseling and Recovery Service said on the 27th that Kim delivered a special address at NFCC Connect 2026, a conference hosted by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) in Washington, D.C., on the 25th.
Speaking on the theme "Financial Basic Rights: A New Paradigm for Resilient Inclusive Finance," Kim said finance should go beyond serving as a simple means of transaction. "Finance must become a foundation that sustains lives and allows people to start over," the chairperson said.
Citing the spirit of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Kim presented the concept of financial basic rights, under which everyone should be guaranteed an opportunity to start again so that a single economic crisis does not lead to permanent exclusion from the financial system.
As a policy framework to give shape to the concept, Kim introduced "Basic Finance," which consists of four pillars: basic counseling and debt restructuring, basic insurance, basic loans and basic savings.
Kim also attended a regular meeting of the Global Coalition of Credit Counselling Agencies (GCCA), sharing South Korea's debt restructuring and counseling systems as well as its experience in linking financial, employment and welfare support. Participants discussed debtor protection systems in various countries and directions for cooperation.
The attending institutions agreed that while systems and environments differ by country, a key role of credit counseling agencies is to detect debt problems early and connect borrowers to appropriate counseling and programs to support their economic recovery.
"Financial problems cannot be resolved separately from an individual's life, so when difficulties arise, everyone should have a path to find the counseling and programs they need and start over," Kim said. "I hope this exchange becomes an opportunity for financial basic rights to advance further as a shared agenda for the international community."
