Credit card companies have lifted their holds on payments to Homeplus.
According to financial industry sources Monday, card issuers decided to resume payments around Thursday, when Homeplus officially reopened its stores nationwide.
The industry had placed partial holds on payments in mid-July, when Homeplus suspended operations at all of its stores across the country, as a precaution against a potential wave of refund requests.
Under the current payment system, when a customer makes a purchase, the card company first pays the merchant and then collects from the customer on the designated billing date. When a transaction is canceled, the card company processes the refund to the customer and must then recover that amount from the merchant.
"We had held back some payments in anticipation of a high volume of cancellations, but new sales have been coming in at a higher rate since operations resumed, so card companies are now processing payments normally," an industry official said.
Homeplus posted sales of 10.63 billion won ($7.51 million) on Thursday, its first day back in business, up 1.2 percent from the same period a year earlier. The number of in-store customers across 67 locations rose 15 percent year-on-year.
However, some payments remain on hold after suppliers that had not received settlements from Homeplus filed for provisional seizure orders on certain card payment receivables.
Under current merchant agreement terms, card companies may suspend or deposit credit sales payments upon receiving a provisional seizure or seizure order in accordance with the Civil Execution Act and other relevant laws.
Authorities have tentatively assessed that the suppliers involved are small and mid-sized firms and that the amounts subject to seizure are not large. The holds are not expected to materially affect Homeplus's operations.
Card companies that have revised their co-branded card policies with Homeplus are taking a wait-and-see approach for the time being, with no changes planned.
gil@heraldcorp.com
