This article was published on June 9, 2025, at 8:26 a.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
The conflict between Homeplus and Shinyoung Securities regarding the card payment asset-backed short-term bond (ABSTB) has escalated into a legal battle, while Korea Ratings assigned different credit ratings to Homeplus in the morning and afternoon of the same day, raising some concerns about accountability.
Credit ratings are assigned to the Homeplus corporation, but they are also given to the special purpose corporation (SPC) established by Shinyoung Securities for the sale of the asset-backed products, serving as the basis for issuing bonds. Korea Ratings assigned an 'A3' credit rating to the SPC in the morning, allowing it to issue 82 billion won worth of bonds, but later confirmed that the rating for the Homeplus corporation was downgraded to 'A3-' on the same day in the afternoon. Although Korea Ratings maintains that the credit ratings given to the corporation and the SPC are separate, some argue that the credit rating agency may have exacerbated confusion.
On the 9th, according to the investment banking (IB) sector, Korea Ratings informed the company in the afternoon of February 25 that Homeplus's short-term credit rating would fall from A3 to A3-.
However, prior to this, in the morning of the same day, Korea Ratings maintained the credit rating of the SPC established by Shinyoung Securities for issuance of bonds at the existing A3 level. Since then, Shinyoung Securities has been issuing ABSTB with Homeplus's card payment claims as the underlying assets through the SPC and selling them to securities firms and investors. Specifically, when Homeplus purchases products from clients, card companies settle the payment and transfer card payment claims to Shinyoung Securities's SPC, which issues and sells asset-backed securities based on the credit rating.
Shinyoung Securities reportedly issued 82 billion won worth of bonds based on the A3 rating up until the morning of February 25. The total amount issued through the SPC by Shinyoung Securities from December last year to February 25 this year, including the last issuance of 82 billion won, is approximately 400 billion won.
Among this, 300 billion won was sold to individual and institutional investors through retail selling channels. Shinyoung Securities is suing Homeplus, claiming that 'Homeplus, aware of the possibility of a credit rating downgrade, tacitly allowed the issuance of bonds and then unexpectedly filed for corporate rehabilitation.'
An industry source noted, 'If Shinyoung Securities had been aware of the likelihood of a change in the SPC's credit rating on the morning of February 25, they would not have issued the 82 billion won worth of bonds.'
According to related industry sources, when an SPC must obtain a credit rating to issue bonds, they generally request the rating from the credit rating agency a day or two in advance, stating something like, 'We plan to issue bonds on [month] [day], so please assign a rating.' It is assumed that Shinyoung Securities made such a request to Korea Ratings around the 23rd or 24th, the day or two before the bond issuance.
Korea Ratings assigned an A3 rating to Shinyoung Securities's SPC on the morning of the 25th, which is said to be because they were unaware of the possibility of a downgrade in the Homeplus corporation's credit rating on the same day. An industry source stated, 'They must have known that the credit rating committee was scheduled to meet that afternoon, so if they genuinely thought that Homeplus's corporate credit rating would drop, it would have been normal to postpone the assessment of the SPC's credit rating.'
Korea Ratings has responded to this, stating that they could not proactively adjust the credit rating of the SPC without the corporation's credit rating having dropped first. It is common practice to assess the SPC's credit rating individually based on any adjustments made to the corporation's credit rating.
In response to the criticism that if there was a possibility of the corporate credit rating dropping in the afternoon, Korea Ratings could have notified Shinyoung Securities to postpone the SPC's credit rating assignment, a representative from Korea Ratings said, 'The department in charge of asset-backed securities should not communicate with the corporate evaluation department responsible for Homeplus's corporate credit rating regarding whether there is a risk of a downgrade.' They emphasized that the department handling the SPC's rating could not know whether Homeplus's corporate rating would be downplayed or not.
They added, 'Advising that the issuance of bonds should be postponed due to the potential for a credit rating downgrade is not something we can do; that is something Homeplus and Shinyoung Securities should have communicated about.'