IBK Industrial Bank Happiness Sharing Foundation Receives 'Presidential Citation'

Merit for Active Support of Small and Medium Enterprise Workers

IBK Industrial Bank's IBK Happiness Sharing Foundation announced on the 24th that it received the Presidential Citation at the '2024 Korea Small and Medium Business Person Awards' hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The IBK Happiness Sharing Foundation is a public interest foundation established by Industrial Bank in 2006 to improve the welfare of small and medium enterprise workers and marginalized groups. Industrial Bank has contributed 53.9 billion KRW to the Happiness Sharing Foundation to date, providing 20 billion KRW in scholarships to 11,257 children of SME workers and 15.1 billion KRW in medical expenses to 3,481 patients with rare, intractable, and severe diseases.

Additionally, as the first in the financial sector, the bank established a joint workplace daycare center for SMEs, supporting the childcare of 270 infants and toddlers, and has supported mentoring where university student mentors, mainly scholarship recipients, provide learning guidance to 23,010 marginalized children and adolescents.

Furthermore, Industrial Bank is expanding multifaceted support programs such as scholarships, medical expenses, academic support, and employment linkage for multicultural families in welfare blind spots to respond to unprecedented demographic changes such as low birth rates and aging population.

An Industrial Bank official stated, “As a policy bank supporting SMEs, we will fulfill our duties and continue to promote social contribution activities that support the challenges our society must solve.”