IBK Extends Loans Exceeding 150 Billion Won to Companies Suspected of Fraudulent Tech Assessments...17 Defaulted

312 TCB Assessments Under Police Investigation

15 Banks, Including IBK, Suffer Damages

Park Sunghoon of the Opposition Party: "Verification Systems of Evaluation Agencies and Banks Must Be Reviewed"

IBK, Industrial Bank of Korea, extended loans exceeding 150 billion won to companies suspected of submitting fraudulent Technology Credit Bureau (TCB) assessments, prompting a police investigation. Experts point out that in order to operate technology finance—which supplies funds based on evaluations of companies' technological competence and growth potential—in an appropriate manner, both the verification systems of evaluation organizations and banks need to be improved.

IBK Headquarters, Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul. Industrial Bank of Korea

According to data submitted by IBK to Assemblyman Park Sunghoon, a member of the National Policy Committee of the National Assembly, as of October 7, 2026, IBK approved loans totaling 157.2 billion won to 249 companies associated with suspicious assessments over the past seven years.

A total of 312 TCB reports provided to IBK by technology credit rating agencies are currently under police investigation due to suspicions of fraud.

As of July this year, the outstanding loan balance to these companies amounted to 72.8 billion won. IBK noted that 17 of the companies involved have defaulted, resulting in a total amount of impaired loans reaching 4.7 billion won.

Breaking down the companies with loans supported by suspicious reports by evaluation agency: 161 were assessed by eCredible, 75 by Korea Evaluation Data, 9 by SCI Evaluation Information, and 4 by NICE Evaluation Information.

Among these, loans disbursed to companies evaluated by eCredible amounted to 105.9 billion won, accounting for 67.4% of the total sum.

Separately, from 2022 to August this year, there were 214 cases in which IBK requested a review of TCB results, resulting in changed ratings or classification as evaluation errors.

By evaluation agency, the number of evaluation errors was as follows: 75 by NICE Evaluation Information, 47 by NICE D&B, 44 by Korea Evaluation Data, 25 by Seoul Evaluation Information, 17 by eCredible, and 6 by Korea Technology Credit Bureau.

IBK stated in a written response to the National Assembly that similar damages have been identified at 15 banks, including itself, and that the bank is cooperating with authorities in the ongoing investigation.

Assemblyman Park emphasized, "There needs to be a rigorous review of how fraudulent assessments translated into actual loans and whether the verification systems of the assessment agencies and banks functioned properly. The soundness of the remaining loans should also be closely monitored, and the verification and accountability systems for assessment agencies must be strengthened to ensure that false or poor evaluations do not directly result in loans by financial institutions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.