Naver 'Smart Store Business Loans' Surpass 50 Billion Won in 6 Months Since Launch

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Naver Financial's Smart Store business loans have surpassed a cumulative contract amount of approximately 50 billion KRW within six months of launch.

Naver Financial announced on the 10th that the online small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit loans launched in collaboration with Mirae Asset Capital have shown positive results.

Existing business loans required collateral, guarantees, or offline stores, which led to criticism that online SMEs were being excluded. Naver Financial explained that by using the Alternative Credit Scoring System (ACSS), they have maintained a loan approval rate of over 40% without delinquencies. ACSS is a model that combines non-financial data such as sales, return rates, and customer inquiry response speed with financial data.

They also stated that ACSS is being advanced based on big data and machine learning technologies. Even though the loan application condition was lowered in January from a monthly transaction amount of 1 million KRW for three consecutive months to 500,000 KRW, the approval rate increased from 40% one month after the service launch to 44% after six months.

About 42% of the sellers who received loans were simplified business owners with relatively low sales among individual business owners, and about 40% were early-stage sellers with less than 1 year and 6 months of business experience.

Naver explained that Smart Store business loans also serve as a catalyst for business expansion. Comparing sales data of each store's main products for the three months before and two months after receiving the loan, the number of sales increased by 42%. Prices decreased by an average of 5.4%.

Kim Taekyung, leader of Naver Financial, said, "SMEs are effectively utilizing loans at the time when they need funds the most for business growth, such as growing their business with higher margin methods or increasing inventory," adding, "We are discussing with Mirae Asset Capital ways to further relax loan conditions and increase approval rates to support the growth of more SMEs."

?

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