"KakaoBank Surpasses 1 Million Individual Business Banking Accounts, Adding One Member Per Minute"

KakaoBank announced on the 18th that the number of business owners using its personal business banking service has surpassed 1 million just over two years after its launch. This milestone was achieved by continuously introducing innovative services exclusively for individual business owners, such as 'Non-face-to-face Interest Support Guarantee Loan,' 'Business Owner Certificate,' and 'Policy Fund Loan Comparison Service.'

Since launching personal business banking in November 2022, KakaoBank has exceeded 1 million business owners within two years. The service saw rapid growth, reaching 100,000 users within two weeks and 500,000 within ten months. This means that more than one individual business owner joined KakaoBank every minute.

In particular, KakaoBank has become a trend among the "Yojeum Sajangnim" (modern-day business owners). According to 2023 statistics from the National Tax Statistics Portal, there are approximately 3.5 million young business owners aged 20 to 40 in South Korea, of whom about 21.3%, or roughly 740,000 customers, use KakaoBank’s personal business banking. Additionally, among approximately 2.77 million startups less than three years old, about 21.5%, or 600,000 businesses, are registered with KakaoBank. This means that one in five "Yojeum Sajangnim" who are newly challenging entrepreneurship uses KakaoBank.

KakaoBank is also increasing loan supply to help small business owners facing financial difficulties secure funding. As of November this year, the cumulative loan supply to individual business owners by KakaoBank has exceeded 2.5 trillion KRW, averaging over 100 billion KRW per month.

The loan balance is also growing rapidly. As of the end of the third quarter, the loan balance for individual business owners reached 1.7 trillion KRW, more than doubling compared to 800 billion KRW at the same time last year.

The variety of loan products is continuously expanding. Since launching personal business owner credit loans in November 2022, KakaoBank introduced personal business owner guarantee loans in May 2023 and interest support guarantee loans for individual business owners in April this year.

Alongside inclusive finance, KakaoBank has secured soundness, laying the foundation for sustainable loan supply. As of the end of the third quarter, KakaoBank’s delinquency rate for individual business owner loans stood at 1.21%, the lowest among internet-only banks. This is the result of actively utilizing the 'Small Business Industry-Specialized Credit Evaluation Model' developed and applied by KakaoBank for risk management.

In fact, applying the alternative credit evaluation model developed by KakaoBank for small business owners to personal business owner credit loan screening resulted in approximately 14% of total loan applications?including those previously rejected due to insufficient financial data?being additionally approved. KakaoBank continues to develop and apply industry-specific models for sectors such as food service business owners, service and special-type workers, and online sellers, providing more reasonable loan services to a wider range of individual business owners.

KakaoBank is carrying out various support activities to reduce financial costs for self-employed individuals and small business owners. Benefits such as ▲Interest refund inquiry for business owners ▲50% support for guarantee fees on guarantee loans ▲Interest reduction on interest support guarantee loans ▲Waiver of early repayment penalties have returned a total of 37.6 billion KRW to personal business owner loan customers.

A KakaoBank representative stated, "By enhancing convenience so that individual business owners can easily access the financial services they need at any time, our service has become one sought after by 1 million business owners. We will continue to strive to practice inclusive finance through practical support that alleviates the financial burdens of small business owners."