KB Financial Group Supports Sustainable Management for SMEs with Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry... KRW 500 Billion Scale

Yang Jong-hee, Vice Chairman of KB Financial Group (left), and Woo Tae-hee, Executive Vice Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (right), are posing for a commemorative photo at the business agreement ceremony to support 'ESG Management for Small and Medium Enterprises.'

KB Financial Group announced on the 16th that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry to support sustainable management for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

KB Financial and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry plan to collaborate on sustainability-linked loans and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) consulting support. Sustainability-linked loans refer to loans where SMEs set their own ESG goals and evaluation criteria and, upon faithfully implementing them, can receive benefits such as interest rate discounts. Through this, SMEs can strengthen their ESG management independently and enjoy effects such as reduced financial costs.

KB Kookmin Bank plans to launch a product in April that offers preferential interest rates of up to 1% for SMEs, providing a total of 500 billion KRW in funding to SMEs. Additionally, they will continue to strengthen cooperation for sustainable management of SMEs through initiatives such as 'ESG education and consulting support' and 'support for spreading ESG management among local SMEs.'

Furthermore, KB Financial will support small business owners and micro-entrepreneurs with a total of 60 billion KRW over three years. For its major affiliate, KB Kookmin Bank, a 'rate reduction program' will be operated, which lowers the interest rate by up to 2 percentage points on the portion exceeding 7% when extending SME loan terms. A KB Financial official stated, "We will continue to exert positive influence through exemplary ESG management practices and fulfill our role and responsibility as a leading ESG management company."

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