KakaoBank Joins Efforts to Support People's Finance... 37.2 Billion KRW Scale

KakaoBank announced on the 10th that it will provide 37.2 billion KRW in support to self-employed individuals and small business owners as part of its participation in the banking sector's livelihood finance support measures.

The support will be carried out through a common program that refunds interest to self-employed individuals and small business owners, and a voluntary program that supports financially vulnerable groups.

KakaoBank will allocate 17.2 billion KRW to the common program of interest refunds. The interest refund will be applied to customers holding individual business loans as of December 20 last year. In accordance with the livelihood finance support guidelines, 90% of the one-year interest payment amount exceeding an interest rate of 4% will be paid. The loan limit per borrower is 200 million KRW, and the maximum refund limit is 3 million KRW. It is expected that about 40,000 individual business owners will benefit from this support.

The interest refund will be processed by KakaoBank calculating the eligible recipients and amounts without requiring a separate application.

An additional 20 billion KRW will be used to support financially vulnerable groups. Support for small business financing will continue through expanded contributions to guarantee institutions and support for guarantee loan fees. Last year, KakaoBank supported half of the guarantee fees for customers who executed individual business guarantee loans. At that time, customers saved an average of 250,000 KRW per person in guarantee fees.

A KakaoBank official stated, "We plan to actively participate in livelihood finance support to share the pain of self-employed individuals and small business owners facing difficulties," and added, "This year, we will continue to expand inclusive financial activities for financially vulnerable groups, including small business owners."