KB Kookmin Bank Offers Tailored Support for Entrepreneurial and Franchise Small Business Owners

Loans Worth About 100 Billion KRW for Entrepreneurial Small Business Owners
Franchise Loan Program to Expand Eligibility and Offer Lower Interest Rates

On August 11, KB Kookmin Bank announced that it is providing tailored support for entrepreneurial and franchise-affiliated small business owners through its "KB Small Business Owner Support Project."

This project consists of four main areas: non-face-to-face financial support for small business owners who are busy with their daily operations; support for costs such as loan interest and guarantee fees; face-to-face channel financial support for growth-oriented small business owners; and sales support to help increase small business owners’ revenue.

Among these, the face-to-face channel financial support includes partnership guarantees and KB franchise loans for entrepreneurial small business owners.

The partnership guarantee for entrepreneurial small business owners is a system designed to foster regional leading industries in areas related to essential lifestyle sectors such as food, clothing, and housing. It targets "entrepreneurial small business owners" who have received differentiated service and product certifications from the Small Enterprise and Market Service and the local credit guarantee foundations.

KB Kookmin Bank has made a special contribution of 6.7 billion KRW to this guarantee, independently supporting loans totaling approximately 100 billion KRW. The guarantee limit is expanded up to 150% of the general limit, allowing up to 400 million KRW (200 million KRW for prospective small business owners). An annual loan interest rate discount of 2 percentage points is also provided.

In addition, the bank is planning to renew its "KB Franchise Loan" product to support franchise-affiliated small business owners. According to Statistics Korea, as of 2024, there are about 300,000 franchise businesses in Korea employing around 1 million people. To assist these business owners, KB Kookmin Bank plans to expand the range of eligible franchise brands for loans and provide additional interest rate discounts for long-standing small business owners and customers who hold the "KB Sajangnim+ Account." The bank is also considering exempting financial fees such as withdrawal and transfer fees, as well as issuing exclusive guarantees to revitalize local commercial districts.

Furthermore, since March of this year, the bank has been operating the "Switching Guarantee Secured Loan Interest Cashback" program to ease the interest repayment burden for small business owners. Under this program, customers who refinance their loans using a switching guarantee certificate from a local credit guarantee foundation receive a cash refund equivalent to 2 percentage points of the loan interest rate from the interest they have paid normally for one year after refinancing. It is expected that more than 20,000 small business owners will receive a total of about 10 billion KRW in interest refunds through this program.

Additionally, KB Kookmin Bank plans to make a special contribution of 70 billion KRW to local credit guarantee foundations by the end of the year, supporting over 1 trillion KRW in loans annually.

A representative from KB Kookmin Bank stated, "We hope this will help small business owners, who are a major pillar of the Korean economy, to grow even stronger," adding, "We will continue to expand a variety of effective and customized support programs that meet the needs of small business owners."

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