This Year in the Public Sector, 'Social Finance' Achieves 317.9 Billion KRW Performance

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jin-ho] The Financial Services Commission announced on the 1st that it held the '2nd Social Finance Council of 2021' to review the progress of social finance initiatives and found that as of the end of July, 317.9 billion KRW was supplied to 1,655 companies. This represents a 62% execution rate against this year's supply target.

Loans supplied amounted to 95.7 billion KRW, which is 56% of the 170 billion KRW target, while guarantees supported 176.7 billion KRW, accounting for 71% of the 250 billion KRW goal. Through funds raised by Korea Growth Investment Corporation and Korea Venture Investment Corp, 45.5 billion KRW was invested, reaching 47% of this year's investment target.

A Financial Services Commission official stated, "We will continue to ensure that public sector funding is supplied without disruption so that social economy enterprises can procure the necessary funds in a timely manner."

Additionally, the meeting discussed the social finance performance of the banking sector in the first half of this year. As of the end of June, the outstanding loan balance to social economy enterprises by banks was 1.2563 trillion KRW, an increase of 135 billion KRW (12%) compared to the end of the previous year (1.1213 trillion KRW).

By bank, Industrial Bank of Korea had the largest amount at 342.4 billion KRW, followed by ▲Shinhan Bank with 254.8 billion KRW ▲NongHyup Bank with 151.2 billion KRW, among others.

Meanwhile, the Financial Services Commission also reviewed the progress of improving social finance infrastructure. First, it is promoting the expansion of institutions using the 'Standard Social Economy Enterprise Evaluation System.' The plan is to increase the number of users to 50 by the end of this year.

Considering that a significant number of social economy enterprises are located outside the metropolitan area, support for regional social economy enterprises will also be strengthened. The commission stated that it is concurrently building a database of social economy enterprises.