'Green General Store' Naver Also Provides Loans to Small Business Owners

Collaboration with Mirae Asset Capital
Industry's First Business Information-Based Screening
Possible Without Store if Sales Exist

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Naver is making a full-scale entry into the financial market. It is starting loans for small business owners based on its own Smart Store.

On the 28th, Naver Financial held the 'Naver Service Meetup' event and announced its future business direction and major services in preparation.

The service that Naver Financial is focusing on is a loan service for small business owners. The plan is to provide a service that can cover financially marginalized groups such as SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) that need funding for business expansion but lack financial history.

Naver Financial will open 'SME Loans' and 'Fast Settlement' programs within the year, in addition to the 'Quick Escrow' and 'Start Zero Fee Program' it has been providing for SMEs. These services are based on Naver Financial's alternative credit scoring system (ACSS), which applies real-time sales flow and seller reliability of Smart Store sellers.

The SME loans that Naver Financial is preparing together with Mirae Asset Capital are the industry's first loan screening using business information. Approval rates and limits are high, and even if there is no store or income, applications are possible as long as there is a certain amount of sales on Naver Shopping.

Business owners without financial history can also receive loans at bank-level interest rates, and with just a mobile phone in their name, they can easily check their limit and interest rate in one minute.

In addition, Naver Financial plans to significantly shorten its own settlement period from the existing 9.4 days to 5.4 days to help sellers quickly turn over business funds.

Choi In-hyuk, CEO of Naver Financial, said, "From startups based on Smart Store to education at Partner Square, various technical and data support such as Biz Advisor, and funding, Naver's support infrastructure for SME startups and growth has been completed," adding, "Naver Financial will also do its best to support SMEs so that they can focus on their business and grow without worrying about funds."

However, in the financial industry, there are concerns that the loans for small business owners announced by Naver are a foothold for expanding financial services. There are also suspicions about possible loopholes in the loan method.

A representative of a commercial bank said, "No matter how much Naver collaborates with capital companies, using the word 'loan' might be a loophole," and pointed out, "Naver is entering the financial industry by choosing a detour without a license and is trying to dominate the financial sector using its platform as a weapon."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.