President Kwon Seon-joo of the Industrial Bank of Korea.

The Philippine central bank has approved a request by the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), South Korea's fourth-largest bank by assets, to open a branch in the country, a spokesman for IBK said recently.

The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approved IBK's application on April 30, 2015, the central bank's Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla said.

IBK, which specializes in lending to small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea, will provide financial services geared towards SMEs in the Philippines, as well as Korean businesses that operate in the country, the spokesman said.

The bank set up a branch in Manila around November last year, and may decide to open more branches at a later date.

IBK had assets worth 219.76 trillion won ($201.28 billion) as of end-2014, with 594 branches in South Korea.

Since its establishment on Aug. 1, 1961, the bank has constantly expanded its corporate client base. Although it took 44 years to secure more than 500,000 corporate clients  a “monumental threshold” it only took eight more years to cross the historic 1 million mark on Dec. 19, 2013. As of Dec. 14, 2015, the number of corporate clients reached 1.2 million thanks in no small part to the bank’s consistent efforts at core competency-building and platform-building. 

“Going forward, we will continue to expand our corporate client base as a new growth engine to consolidate our predominant position in the corporate banking business,” the bank said. “As a policy bank that specializes in SME lending, we contributed to upholding the government’s finance policy to help lift the nation’s economy out of its current quagmire and to stimulate Korea’s creative economy by rolling out various new products aimed specifically for financing SMEs, especially start-ups and SOHOs, in 2015.”

In 2015, the IBK Successful Startup Loan financed startups that had been in business for seven years or less in securing new growth engines and commercializing their advanced technologies so as to enhance their competitiveness. In order to support SOHO borrowers, the IBK SOHO Loan for Hope helps SOHO borrowers facing financial distress, while the i-ONE SOHO Loan provides working capital financing and is in fact the Bank’s first corporate loan product directed exclusively to non-face-to-face channels.

IBK also places significant importance on product development and the timely funding of competitive corporate clients with advanced technologies so that they can successfully market these technologies.

The Intellectual Property 1+1 Contract- Guaranteed Loan is today the only product of its kind available on the market. Under an exclusive agreement with the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KIBO), this loan is offered as a package (an intellectual property - guaranteed loan plus a guaranteed loan) solely by IBK to promote technology financing businesses. 

The Guaranteed Loan for Technology-Escrowed Companies is a guaranteed loan product that funds companies which agree to technology escrow in the form of special benefits, such as additional exemptions under a business alliance with Korea’s Win-Win Partnership Foundation. 

The IBK FinTech Dream Corporate Loan is earmarked for borrowers with FinTech know-how and those in related businesses, funding their technology R&D and working capital. In addition, IBK offers additional financial assistance to those companies with advanced technologies to maximize the effects of the investment and financing.

A scene from a  ceremony on Dec. 28, 2015, to open IBK’s Manila Branch in Manila, the Philippines, led by President Kwon Seon-joo of IBK.(Photos: IBK)