President Park Geun-hye speaks at the 3rd Meeting of the Presidential Committee 

for Cultural Enrichment held at Bitmaru Broadcasting Support Center in Ilsan, Geyonggi Province on April 4.

President Kwon Seon-joo of the Industrial Bank of Korea pledged that IBK will expand its help to the cultural content industry so that it will be able to produce the second and third series similar to “The Darling, Who Came from Stars,” a huge TV drama hit, a fusion of culture and technology finance that not only swept up its domestic fans, but also TV viewers in neighboring China.

In an interview with local media on the occasion of the first 100 days in office, she said by 2016 IBK will supply 750 billion won in loan funds and also expand technology finance in cooperation with the Seoul National University Technology Holding Co. to enable SMEs to commercialize their technologies.

CEO Kwon, the first female head of a bank in Korea, said the cultural content industry is a very risky business, requiring a lot of funds at the start, but very good in terms of creating jobs and cooperation with related other industries. “We have to build a system to supply a lot of funds to the industry for its growth,” she said. “You can see the need for the special financing the way the hit drama has affected other industries in the area of their operations to appreciate the power of the cultural content industry.

“IBK will help the creation of another TV drama like this hit-drama,” Kwon promised.

In fact, IBK has already had a role in the production of the popular TV drama. The scene where the main character Chan-song receives financial consultations to take out a bank loan was filmed at IBK’s Ilsan branch. IBK’s ad that says, “Depositing your money at IBK will help businesses,” appears in the drama a number of times with a huge ad effect for the bank.

CEO Kwon said the bank will provide 695 billion won in loans and 55 billion won in investments to the cultural content industry by 2016.

The bank will introduce the evaluation system for the content value before providing loans and investments over various stages in such areas as genre and special features in consultations with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the CEO said.

President Kwon Seon-joo of the Industrial Bank of Korea

Kwon said the plan was reported to President Park Geun-hye when she came to the 3rd Cultural Content Promotion Committee meeting held at the Bitmaru Broadcasting Support Center in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, on April 4, and the president praised and agreed with the plan after hearing it.

Kwon said that IBK will sign an MOU with the Seoul National University Technology Holding Co. to vitalize intellectual property finance, a kind of technology finance, under a strategy designed to support the SNU Technology Holding Co.’s transfer of its technologies to IBK’s SME customers. IBK will provide then loans to the SMEs that are receiving the technologies, Kwon said.

Kwon also revealed IBK’s plan to sign an MOU with the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) in the first half of this year and to allocate 30 billion won for an investment fund exclusively for IP rights and a 50 billion won loan fund to be provided as IP rights collateral.

In the second half, IBK will provide loans to firms that have successfully undertaken R&D projects for the government designating them as IBK Creative Business Firms.

The IBK CEO also announced that the bank began on April 7 to dish out the loans under the “Be Strong Republic of Korea” program tailor-made for the borrowers’ varying stages of business including startup, growth, maturity, and recharging.

The bank will also provide packages of loans to multi-cultural families, children, students, beginners in society, mature adult, housewives, and others under IBK’s plan to provide diverse and comprehensive financial support to diverse borrowers.