Business Agreement Ceremony Held by Korea Federation of Banks and Financial Services Commission
The banking sector has initiated the establishment of a cooperative system for consulting small business owners. To this end, a banking sector consulting manual will be introduced and consulting centers will be expanded. The manual includes provisions such as interest rate discounts for those who complete the consulting.
The Korea Federation of Banks, the Financial Services Commission, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, public institutions, and private companies involved in small business consulting held a business agreement ceremony on the 2nd to expand the small business consulting ecosystem. This agreement is a follow-up measure to the "Banking Sector Small Business Financial Support Plan" announced in December last year. The agreement includes building a cooperative system among participating institutions, mutual provision of support services, and interest rate discounts for those who complete the consulting.
Through this agreement, the plan is to organically link and expand the infrastructure supporting small business consulting to provide integrated services covering both financial areas such as fund supply and debt adjustment, and non-financial areas such as startup, operation, and closure consulting.
Along with the agreement, the banking sector will introduce a banking sector consulting manual and expand consulting centers to strengthen service provision capabilities. The manual stipulates the basic principles for enhancing support for small business consulting, consulting work procedures, and provisions for organization, personnel, and internal standards. It also includes measures to activate the system, such as offering preferential loan interest rates when consulting completers apply for business loans at the respective banks. Consulting based on the manual is expected to begin in the second half of this year.
Expansion of consulting centers will also be pursued. As of the end of last year, 32 consulting centers operated by 9 banks will be continuously expanded to 60 centers across 14 banks (excluding Korea Development Bank, Citibank Korea, Export-Import Bank of Korea, KakaoBank, Toss Bank, and K Bank) within this year.
The banking sector will also sequentially implement other programs of the small business financial support plan this month, such as customized debt adjustment (Small Business 119 Plus), support for business closures, and Sunshine Loan 119.
Kwon Dae-young, Secretary General of the Financial Services Commission, stated, “We expect that entrepreneurs and small business owners will be able to systematically receive services such as commercial area analysis, business model development, and linkage between financial support and management support through banks and consulting institutions,” adding, “We hope this program becomes a reliable companion for small business owners, and the government will continue its policy efforts to ensure its successful establishment.”
Cho Yong-byeong, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, said, “This agreement lays the foundation to reduce the search costs for small business owners and to ‘well’ design and ‘properly’ provide customized consulting for small business owners,” and added, “We will strive to ensure that this leads to tangible changes felt by small business owners.”
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