"Interest Rate Benefits for Completing Sojingong and Bank Consulting"

Loan Interest Rate Discount (0.2% Point or More) Applied
Completion Performance Required Within 3 Years from Application Date

The Small Enterprise and Market Service (SEMAS) announced on the 8th that it will implement a mutual application plan for loan interest rate discounts for small business owners who have completed programs such as the ‘SEMAS-Bank Management Consulting’.

Seoul Jongno-gu Small Enterprise and Market Service Seoul Jungbu Center / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

This system was established to alleviate the loan interest repayment burden on small business owners struggling due to high interest rates and a slowdown in economic recovery, and to create a stable management environment for small business owners. SEMAS and the Korea Federation of Banks have joined forces under the supervision of the Financial Supervisory Service.

SEMAS offers a preferential interest rate benefit (0.1 percentage points) on policy funds to those who have completed management consulting at commercial banks. Commercial banks apply loan interest rate discounts (0.2 percentage points or more) to those who have completed SEMAS’s small business support programs.

Before the implementation of this system, completing SEMAS support programs only granted interest rate benefits when borrowing SEMAS policy funds. Similarly, completing bank consulting only applied interest rate benefits when using loan products from that specific bank.

Small business owners who have completed SEMAS programs can obtain a program participation certificate through the ‘Small Business 24’ website and submit it to the participating bank. The SEMAS program participation certificate can only be issued for small business capacity-building consulting, Hope Return Package management improvement support, Baeknyeon Gage (100-Year Store) and Baeknyeon Sogongin (100-Year Small Artisan), Strong Small Business, and New Business Startup Academy. Additionally, the completion record must be within three years from the loan application date. For example, if applying for a loan this year, consulting completed after January 1, 2021, will be recognized as valid.

Park Seong-hyo, Director of SEMAS, said, “Through the mutual application of preferential interest rates between SEMAS and banks, we expect that the policy support projects for small business owners supported by the corporation will be further activated, and that this will serve as a good example of win-win finance to help ease the loan interest burden on small business owners struggling with high interest rates.”