President Yoon Jong-won of the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK). (Photos: IBK)

The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) is supporting small and medium-sized companies having difficulty finding new sales channels.

The IBK announced on Oct. 13 that it will produce promotional videos with the Seoul Business Agency to promote online sales of excellent products for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and carry out online sales promotion projects.

Through the project, the IBK produced promotional videos of 10 SME products. Starting with the reception of applications from companies that want to participate in the event in May, the companies were finally selected after a document review in the first stage and a screening by a council composed of specialized outside MDs in the second stage.

The IBK and the Seoul Business Agency will post promotional videos on Facebook and YouTube. The videos can be viewed by searching for "exciting items that I don’t want to tell other people about."

The event will also support overseas market development by posting English subtitles for the videos on YouTube and Chinese subtitles on Weibo.

They will also hold a special exhibition called "ON Seoul Market" at Gmarket, an online open market.

According to the bank, the exhibition will allow consumers to purchase small and medium-sized companies’ excellent products at low prices, which is expected to dial up their sales.

The IBK and the Seoul Business Agency jointly supported all expenses needed for the production of the videos, online marketing and special exhibitions.

The project began from an idea by members of the Panda Club at the IBK's Community of Practice (CoP).

“We have planned the event to help small and medium-sized companies suffering significantly from the COVID-19 pandemic to find their sales channels,” an IBK official said. “We are considering helping more companies in the future.”

IBK launches “IBK Moomin Check Card” featuring Finland's global character Moomin and an antibacterial function on Oct. 12.

In the meantime, the IBK released IBK Moomin Check Card featuring popular character Moomin and an antibacterial function in October.

Finland's popular global character "Moomin" was used in the card design and anti-bacterial films are applied on both sides of the card to prevent the spread of viruses or germs through the plastic money.

“Moomin has been a popular character delivering a message of purity, respectfulness and hopefulness among people around the world for a long time,” an IBK official said. “With a warm-hearted card design, we developed the card based on the concept of a card people want to have.”

The card issuance targets are individual members and can be issued via smart banking application “i-ONE Bank” and mobile branch application “IBK Cube.” Customers can apply for the card at IBK branches, as well.

Users of Moomin Card are able to enjoy 10-percent discounts at coffee shops and online shopping malls such as Coupang, Timon and WeMakePrice and 400-won discounts at movie theaters (CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox) and 5-percent discounts at convenience stores.

Moreover, the IBK gives holders of Moomin Card 10-30 percent discounts when they buy tickets to a special exhibition in honor of the 75th anniversary of Moomin and Moomin Land on Jeju Island and use Moomin Café near Hongik University in Seoul by the end of this year.

To mark the launch of the card, IBK also held a signing ceremony with the Finnish Embassy of Korea at Moomin Land on Jeju Island.

“Moomin Card offers excellent design and many benefits and is very safe to use,” an IBK official said. “We hope that the card will set a good precedent for cultural exchanges based on financial products.”

In October, the IBK launched the Quick Simple Payment Service for customers who use personal credit or debit cards through Samsung Pay and Kakao Pay.

By applying for credit and debit card issuance on IBK smart banking application “i-ONE Bank,” customers will be able to use simple payment services immediately without receiving physical cards if they choose either Samsung Pay or Kakao Pay.

Customers who applied can use simple payment services according to instruction messages (Samsung Pat push notices and messages from Kakao Talk among others) sent to them as soon as cards are issued without entering information such as card numbers and expiration dates.

“The service enhances customer convenience with an increase in users of simple payment services,” said an official at the IBK.