The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) gives out more than 80 percent of its loans to SMEs, leading the creativity and technology in the banking community.
President Kwon Seon-joo has been known to have killed two birds with one stone by providing loans to SMEs interest rates not exceeding 10 percent per annum, and still improving annual profit to the tune of 20.8 percent over the previous year.
IBK launched a special team to strengthen its loans to SMEs based on their technologies in July 2013, even before the government encouraged the provision of loans to SMEs based on their technologies. The bank also split the SME technology loan team by setting up a technology evaluation team last July, which falls under the IB loans support headquarters.
In addition, the bank launched a venture finance team in January. All loans provided to SMEs based on their technologies have been evaluated by the technology team.
IBK officials said the bank has been doing its best to grant technology loans so that a successful model can be built by searching for the SMEs with patent rights for their technologies and intellectual property rights.
The bank set up “the T-value,” a technology evaluation project system, computerizing the entire technology evaluation and the related work.
The computerization of the system has been able to produce excellent results for the bank in providing the technology-related loans worth 50 billion won. That will be increased to 100 billion won. The bank also set up a 30 billion won in fund to invest in the Intellectual Property Rights Creative Investment Cooperative.
As a result, IBK has been way ahead of other banks in its loans provided to SMEs based on their technologies. IBK’s share of total loans based on technologies put out by the banks totaled 2.216 trillion won, or one-quarter the total SME technology bank loans last year.
IBK has been holding a variety of events to advertise its technology loans. Key points include interest rates that are dependent on their technology and advantages in the credit analyses. Last November and December, the bank conducted the IBK Technology Finance Hope Tour for two days at industrial complexes, including the Shihwa Industrial Complex in Gyeonggi Province, to hear what those SMEs wanted from the technology finance.
IBK has not limited its operation to technology loans. The bank has been engaged in the expansion of the fintech, taking advantage of the internet to provide loans online to promote the establishment of integrated financial services on the internet.
IBK One Bank is a platform for online banking through the internet. Customers can take care of their transactions with banks online through the integrated platform. It provides such professional financial services as remittances; other banking transactions; the recommendation of financial products; consultations; and subscription of financial products.
IBK officials said their bank has been working hard to provide maximum comfortable financial services which connect all of its business units, such as its branches, smart-banking and customer centers, even sharing information related to consultations like the Omni Channel, a smart financial system.
IBK has also been building a new mobile payment settlement market with the fintech business firms with new ITs to set up a financial settlement firm based on a win-win model, they said.
Recently, IBK signed an agreement with the Toss, a financial firm providing simple fund remittance services, which withdraws customers’ funds in real time. The bank aims to have fintech business firms join its One Pay system to enable them to settle their payments easily and comfortably, the officials said.