The First Outcome of Digitalization Efforts
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] The Export-Import Bank, which has emphasized "improving accessibility to policy funds" since the beginning of this year, has unveiled its first achievement in digital innovation.
The Export-Import Bank of Korea (hereinafter referred to as "KEXIM") announced on the 1st that it will officially launch the "Overseas On-Lending Digital Platform," allowing client companies and intermediary financial institutions to access online and check real-time loan eligibility and screening progress.
Overseas On-Lending is an indirect financing product where KEXIM provides policy funds to intermediary financial institutions (such as commercial banks) with which agreements have been signed, and these institutions conduct their own screening to lend operating, facility, and overseas business funds to target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies. Since its introduction in 2015, when KEXIM supported only 77 companies with 59.7 billion KRW, the Overseas On-Lending support performance has surpassed approximately 4,300 companies and 6 trillion KRW this year.
With the launch of KEXIM's online service, SMEs in need of funds can now easily check loan eligibility and receive customized product guidance through a non-face-to-face service by accessing the digital platform. In particular, the introduction of a simplified export-import performance service is expected to drastically reduce the burden on client companies that previously had to submit export-import performance certification documents.
If companies agree to provide information linked to BankTRASS (the export-import statistics information service of the Korea Trade Statistics Promotion Institute), rapid loan screening becomes possible without submitting documents related to export-import performance. Convenience has also greatly improved from the perspective of intermediary financial institutions. Intermediary financial institutions that have signed intermediary loan agreements with KEXIM can now check loan limits, interest rate information, and screening progress for each product in real time through the online service.
A KEXIM official said, "Through the operation of the Overseas On-Lending Digital Platform, SMEs with limited personnel can easily check loan support requirements and products without visiting intermediary financial institutions multiple times," adding, "As online document submission has become possible, we expect this to greatly help improve policy finance accessibility and work convenience for small and micro enterprises."
Furthermore, KEXIM plans to officially launch the online service "Corporate Finance Platform" in March next year and introduce an automatic loan screening system utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and digital data by the end of next year.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
