Naver Financial "We Want to Collaborate with Financial Companies... Please See Us as a Good Partner" (Comprehensive)

Naver Financial to Launch Small Business Loans Within the Year
Focus on Financial Services for Small Business Owners

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Naver is launching loan products for new filers with limited financial history and small business owners. This service is based on its own Smart Store platform. It aims to create new value in the financial market by encompassing financially marginalized groups and plans to continue introducing innovative services in collaboration with existing financial institutions in the future.

Naver Financial, Naver's financial specialist subsidiary, held the 'Naver Service Meetup' event on the 28th to announce its future business directions and upcoming services.

'SME Loans' for Small Business Owners to Launch Within the Year... Available with Sales Only

Naver Financial plans to introduce 'SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) Loans' and 'Fast Settlement' services for small business owners in the second half of this year. These services are based on Naver Financial's proprietary Alternative Credit Scoring System (ACSS), which applies real-time sales flow and seller reliability data from Smart Store sellers. Simulations of Naver Financial's ACSS show that the number of top-tier (Grade 1) candidates nearly doubles compared to traditional CB grades.

The SME loans, prepared in partnership with Mirae Asset Capital, are the industry's first loan assessments utilizing business information. They offer higher approval rates and limits, and applications are possible even without a physical store or income, as long as there is a certain amount of sales on Naver Shopping. Business owners without financial history can receive loans at bank-level interest rates, and with just a mobile phone registered in their name, they can easily check their loan limit and interest rate within one minute.

Additionally, Naver Financial plans to significantly shorten its own settlement period for sellers from the current 9.4 days to 5.4 days to help sellers quickly rotate their business funds.

Partnerships with Financial Institutions More Efficient than Direct Establishment for Service Provision

At the event, Naver Financial emphasized its commitment to introducing innovative financial services as a strong partner with financial institutions. When asked why they entered the financial industry through partnerships, Choi In-hyuk, CEO of Naver Financial, said, "We believe that creating services in partnership with financial companies will allow us to provide more innovative services," adding, "We want to focus on what we do best."

Regarding the cautious atmosphere in the financial sector, he reiterated, "We want to build good cooperative relationships with financial companies," and "We can create better services through partnerships with competitive financial institutions." Previously, the banking, insurance, and card industries expressed concerns whenever Naver launched new products. For example, last month, when Naver Bank Account was introduced jointly with Mirae Asset Daewoo, there were criticisms about advertising it like a bank deposit account, which led to improvements. CEO Choi explained, "These are experiences that come with doing finance," and added, "Naver Financial operates legally within regulations after obtaining approvals from the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service."

Focusing on Financial Services for SMEs... Creating New Value

Regarding the recently controversial automobile insurance comparison platform service, he drew a line by saying, "We are reviewing it, but nothing has been finalized yet." In the insurance industry, there were reports that Naver Financial planned to launch an automobile insurance premium comparison platform within the year and charged about 11% commission on sales. CEO Choi stated, "The purpose of establishing the insurance service company is SME," and added, "Starting in the second half of the year, we are preparing educational programs related to insurance services to stabilize SMEs' businesses."

On data disclosure, he explained, "We plan to disclose not only credit-related data but also a very large amount of data," but emphasized, "We are very careful to ensure that users' privacy is not violated." While they can disclose data such as Naver Shopping payment data desired by the financial sector, they intend to carefully consider the format and scope from the perspective of user privacy.

CEO Choi emphasized, "Naver Financial's major direction is to create new value in the financial market with services that encompass financially marginalized groups such as SMEs and new filers who have had to remain in blind spots due to lack of financial history," and added, "First, we will focus on financial services for SMEs, who are Naver's most important partners and the foundation of our society's growth."

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