KB Kookmin Card Proves Its Inclusive Finance Prowess... Tops Industry in Mid-Rate Loan Growth Rate

35% quarter-on-quarter growth in Q4 2025
Maximum interest rate on loan products cut by 1 percentage point
"Reducing interest burdens for low-income and vulnerable groups"

KB Kookmin Card is rapidly expanding the supply of mid-rate loans and increasing its presence in the industry. It ranked first in the sector with a double-digit quarterly growth rate. This shows that KB Kookmin Card's strategy of making mid-rate loans a core pillar of its "inclusive finance" policy has worked.

On February 8, KB Kookmin Card announced that the amount of mid-rate loans it handled in the fourth quarter of last year reached 441.4 billion won. This is an increase of 34.8% (114.0 billion won) compared with the previous quarter's 327.4 billion won. The growth rate is the highest in the industry.

Mid-rate loans are products offered at relatively low interest rates to customers in the lower 50% credit-score bracket (mid- to low-credit borrowers. This is an area where the financial authorities have been consistently calling for expanded supply in order to improve financial access for low-income and vulnerable groups.

According to an announcement last month by the Credit Finance Association, the total amount of mid-rate loans handled by the seven domestic standalone credit card companies was 2.2828 trillion won, up 6.3% (134.6 billion won) from the previous quarter's 2.1482 trillion won. In other words, KB Kookmin Card's growth rate was roughly five times higher than the industry average.

The company also showed an uptrend in the number of loans handled. In the fourth quarter of last year, KB Kookmin Card handled 50,318 mid-rate loans, successfully increasing both the total amount and the number of transactions. This aligns with KB Kookmin Card's inclusive finance policy stance of enhancing financial access for a broader range of customers through mid-rate loans.

KB Kookmin Card also implemented interest rate cuts on its loan products. Recently, it lowered the maximum interest rate on all loan products, including long-term card loans, by 1 percentage point from 19.9% to 18.9%. This supplemented its inclusive finance strategy by reducing interest burdens on borrowers, including customers using mid-rate loans.

This move is viewed as meaningful because it is not just a simple rate adjustment, but a measure that combines the expansion of mid-rate loan supply with consideration for both financial access and actual burden relief.

For card companies, it is not easy to expand business with mid- to low-credit borrowers while facing the dual challenge of tighter household loan regulations and declining profitability. However, KB Kookmin Card has consistently pursued mid-rate loan business within a manageable risk range, rather than seeking short-term growth in scale by focusing on high-interest products.

The financial supervisory authorities have also acknowledged KB Kookmin Card's outstanding capabilities in inclusive finance. The Financial Supervisory Service recently selected KB Kookmin Card as an excellent institution for new win-win and cooperative finance products. The small-business-only financial product "KB MyBiz Sajangnim Deundeun Corporate Card" was highlighted as a representative example.

KB Kookmin Card interpreted this as recognition not of the success of a single product, but of its approach of designing inclusive finance as one portfolio that bundles together the expansion of mid-rate loans, the easing of interest burdens, and win-win card products.

In particular, its win-win card products dedicated to individual business owners have been evaluated as practically easing the management burden of self-employed business owners by designing benefits that reflect merchant sales structures and business expense spending patterns.

It is cited as a differentiated case in that the company simultaneously operates a structure that enhances financial access for individuals and individual business owners through mid-rate loans, while reducing recurring cost burdens through card products.

Market observers say KB Kookmin Card has secured the conditions to turn inclusive finance into a "sustainable business model" rather than a one-off campaign.

This is because expanding mid-rate loans, easing interest burdens, and operating win-win products all require risk management and profit structures to support them in tandem.

KB Kookmin Card's recent moves are seen as a precedent showing that inclusive finance can be positioned not as a cost, but as part of a long-term strategy.

An industry official said, "In inclusive finance, the most important factors are supply and sustainability," adding, "KB Kookmin Card's strategy of building up, at the same time, a supply strategy centered on expanding mid-rate loans, measures to ease interest burdens, and the performance of win-win products is a role model that shows what role a card company can play as a main actor in inclusive finance."

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