Yoon Jong-won (left), president of the IBK, receives a thank-you message from Kim Ki-mun, chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business who visited the IBK to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the IBK, on July 29.  (Photo: IBK)

The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) recently decided to join forces with KT to jointly promote new digital businesses to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners.

Through an agreement on Aug. 4, the two companies decided to establish a cooperative system to jointly discover and invest in future growth drivers and innovative companies, promote cooperation in developing new businesses based on digital technology in AI, big data and cloud (ABC) sectors, and build a system to support small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners.

First of all, the government will expand investments into promising small and medium-sized venture companies, and jointly discover and invest in content projects and producers to foster cultural assets by establishing a joint fund worth 40 billion won.

The two companies also agreed to jointly study ways to collect, combine, utilize and commercialize data for small and medium-sized enterprises in the digital new business sector.

The number of individual and corporate customers that join the IBK through digital channels is on a steadily rise.

Statistics show that the number of such customers gradually climbed from 12,221 in December 2019 to 13,031 in December 2020 and 13,344 in June this year.

In detail, 57 percent of those who received loans and 79 percent of those who bought savings products used digital channels in June, respectively.

The IBK’s Box POS Service, for which a special thank-you event is being held to commemorate 10,000 subscribers, is a service where anyone can use their smartphones as card payment terminals if they install Box POS Application.

Box POS Service users can receive payments from users of Zero Pay, Kakao Pay, SSG Pay and L. Pay without a separate reader.

Unlike other POS terminals, the Box POS Service can be used free of charge and will provide additional services in the future, such as delivery agency services and selling goods on credit.

As of July, the number of subscribers exceeded 10,000 in just four months since the launch of the service.

Earlier in January, the IBK Industrial Bank of Korea launched the IBK Alpha Tax Reporting Service for small business owners.

The artificial intelligence (AI) based service collects data such as card sales and transactions of bank accounts and automatically prepares tax books by making good use of AI technology.

It also provides one-click tax reports, the comparison of tax rates in the same industry, the estimation of value added tax.

The IBK Alpha Tax Reporting Service an intelligent banking service that utilizes fourth industrial technology.

In detail, IBK Alpha Briefing automatically informs customers of bank funds status, sales, and purchase details.

IBK Alpha Business Zone Analysis improves commercial area analysis accuracy and IBK Alpha Tax Reporting that automatically supports tax reporting through artificial intelligence technology.

In the meantime, Kim Ki-mun, chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, visited the IBK headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul on July 29 to celebrate the IBK’s 60th anniversary and deliver a thank-you message to the Bank of Korea for giving financial support to small and medium-sized businesses amid the COVID-19 situation.

“I can’t imagine what small and medium-sized companies would have been like without the IBK in the course of Korea’s economic growth,” Kim said in a meeting with Yoon Jong-won, president of the Industrial Bank of Korea. “We are grateful to the IBK for its role in supporting small and medium-sized companies during economic crises.”

“We will continue to stand by small and medium-sized enterprises as we have been a strong supporter of them during the past 60 years,” Yoon said in response.

The IBK was established on Aug. 1, 1961 and marks its 60th anniversary this year. Industrial Bank of Korea has been supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners to serve as pump-priming water for the innovation-powered growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In fact, the IBK’s loans to small and medium-sized companies accounted for 23.1 percent of its total loans, the highest among banks in Korea as of the end of March. In particular, the IBK served as a strong supporter for small and medium-sized companies in economic crises.