President Kim Do-jin holds a copy of the agreement signed between the Industrial Bank of Korea(IBK) and Suwon City on cooperation to create jobs on Jan. 29.

IBK President Kim Do-jin, left, holds a copy of the agreement signed with the Korea Technology Finance Corp., and the Women Enterprise Support Center to help create jobs and business firms run by women listed on the stock exchange as many as possible on Feb. 2 after signing the agreement at Women Enterprise Support Center in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, with the representatives of the two organizations.(Photos: IBK)

The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) has been strengthening its financial support plan for SMEs across the country with the aim of creating 100,000 jobs. 

The organization  is developing financial products that are conducive to economic growth, sends congratulatory money to those who found new jobs and offers other financial assistance.

In his congratulatory speech on the bank’s anniversary, President Kim Do-jin pledged to provide financial support to the SMEs to help create 100,000 jobs by 2022.

The bank signed cooperative agreements to achieve its job creation target with a number of public associations, including the Korea Technology Finance Corp. (Kibo), the Women Enterprise Support Center, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fun (Kodit), and the City of Suwon.

IBK signed an agreement with the Kibo to provide financial support to the technology-driven SMEs to stabilize their jobs under which the bank will provide 700 million won as support funds for technology credit guarantees. Kibo will in return issue 10 billion won worth of technology credit guarantees to the technology-driven SMEs to help them get financial help for operation.

Under the agreement, IBK will cut 1.3 percent in the interest rates from loans to SMEs, depending on their contributions to the national economy, and will cover 0.7 percent of the credit guarantee fees for the initial year of the Kibo guarantees.

The bank hopes its loans to SMEs helps them offset the rise in personnel expenses for employees in line with the government policy to boost minimum salaries around the country. 

IBK on Feb. 2 inked agreements with both Women Enterprise Support Center and Kibo on providing support for “growth businesses” run by women and create quality jobs under which IBK will develop financial products exclusively for businesses run by women, while Kibo will cut its guarantee fees for those women business firms.

IBK will create a fund amounting to around 50 billion won to be provided to business firms run by women and recommended by the Women Enterprise Support Center for IBK’s financial support. The bank will charge a 1 percent lower interest rate on loans from the fund.

The bank also signed an agreement with the City of Suwon to support the government plan to create new jobs around the country under which the bank will give the congratulatory money to those who found jobs in Suwon through the Suwon Job Center run by the City of Suwon and also give 100 million won to the non-profit organization working to create jobs in the city and recommended by the Suwon City.

The bank will give its congratulatory funds to those who deposited more than 700,000 won of their monthly paychecks to their accounts with IBK more than two months in a row. They can ask for the congratulatory funds through the IBK homepage.

The bank also signed the similar agreement with Kodit last year to give the financial support to firms leading the 4th Industrial Revolution, under which the bank will provide 20 billion won in operation funds to Kodit so that Kodit can issue some 1.2 trillion won worth of credit guarantees to start-ups, which will be expected to develop 275 products in 45 areas with nine key development themes ― all within the 4th Industrial Revolution ― to cover their loans form IBK.

The bank will cut interest rates on those loans totaling 1 percent over the five-year maturity of the loans, which comes to 0.2 percent per annum.