On April 10, KB Kookmin Bank announced that it has signed a business agreement with the Korea Federation of Credit Guarantee Foundations to provide financial support to self-employed people who are struggling to overcome their difficulties due to a recent complex crisis situation.
Under the agreement, KB Kookmin Bank will contribute 2 billion won to the Credit Guarantee Foundation and give a total of 30 billion won in guaranteed loans for self-employed people who received consulting from the KB SOHO Consulting Center.
Those who are eligible are self-employed individuals who received consulting services from 13 KB SOHO Consulting Centers nationwide and have received letters of recommendation from the centers.
Under the financial support agreement, local credit guarantee foundations will provide preferential loans of up to 150 percent of guarantee limits, calculated through a guarantee review, and the guarantee fee rate will be preferentially applied at 0.5 percent or less per year.
KB will support government and local government policy loans and general fund loans using guarantees issued by local credit guarantee foundations as collateral, and in the case of general fund loans, KB will support preferential interest rates of up to 2.2 percentage points depending on customers’ records.
“We hope that non-financial and financial support provided by the KB SOHO Consulting Center and this special contribution will be of great help to the self-employed who have been going through difficulties recently,” a KB Kookmin Bank official said.
KB SOHO Consulting is a support program for self-employed people that KB launched in September 2016. It helps them boost their business competitiveness.
For the first time in the banking industry, the KB SOHO Consulting Center provides free management and financial support to the self-employed. KB Kookmin Bank runs 13 KB SOHO Consulting Centers nationwide.
They provide more than 26,000 business competitiveness enhancement consulting services in various fields such as location and commercial area analyses, management (marketing, PR and SNS), financing, general knowledge about business foundation, taxation, and intellectual property rights.
Expanding Financial Company-CVS Synergies
KB Kookmin Bank announced on April 9 that it has signed a business agreement with BGF Retail, which runs CU Convenience Stores, to create new synergies with the Korean convenience store giant in online and offline services.
On April 6, KB Kookmin Bank signed a business agreement with BGF Retail to expand financial company-convenience store synergies based on platform and service combination at New KB Kookmin Bank Building in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
The signing ceremony was attended by Song Ji-taek, executive vice president of innovation at BGF Retail, and Jung Moon-cheol, vice president of the Individual Customer Group at KB Kookmin Bank.
KB Kookmin Bank and BGF Retail will cooperate in various areas by providing platform-based authentication services, expanding online and offline channel interlocking services through an infrastructure combination between bank branches and CU stores, and strengthening new product development and joint marketing through payment and data collaboration through this business agreement.
Win-Win Growth with MVNOs
KB Kookmin Bank, which entered the mobile communications market with its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business, announced on April 14 that it will strive for mutual growth with small and medium-sized MVNOs.
Kookmin Bank’s MVNO service Liiv was designated as the first special service for innovative finance in April 2019 and launched in December 2022.
On April 12, the Korean Financial Services Commission decided to designate the service as an ancillary business of banks, officially making KB Kookmin Bank an MVNO.
Liiv plans to expand its programs for win-win cooperation with small and medium-sized MVNO.
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