KakaoBank: "Individual Business Banking Customers Top 1.7 Million...; We Will Expand Services"

Cumulative lending reaches KRW 7 trillion, with an outstanding balance of KRW 4 trillion

KakaoBank announced on the 2nd that the number of its individual business customers had surpassed 1.7 million, four years after it launched banking services for individual businesses.

Since launching its individual business banking services in November 2022, KakaoBank has steadily expanded its financial products, including unsecured loans, guarantee-backed loans, interest-subsidized guarantee-backed loans, and real estate-secured loans.

Three out of every five borrowers were classified as having medium or low credit. KakaoBank has continued to enhance its credit assessment models to reflect the characteristics of individual businesses and improve small business owners’ access to finance.

KakaoBank said it had also reduced the burden of financial costs. Since launching guarantee-backed loans in 2023, it has expanded its cooperation with regional credit guarantee foundations. This year, it became the first internet-only bank to complete interest-subsidy agreements with regional credit guarantee foundations nationwide. Through guarantee-fee support and cashback, among other measures, it provided KRW 28 billion in financial cost savings, and a further KRW 24 billion in savings through interest-subsidized guarantee-backed loans.

The individual business real estate-secured loan, launched in October 2025, offers loans of up to KRW 1 billion. Since its launch, the product has provided funding at an average annual interest rate of 3.74%. Current annual interest rates range from a low of 3.04% to a high of 7.89%.

KakaoBank is also enhancing customer convenience. From the time of launch, customers could apply for loans through the app. It has also introduced My Business·Business Owner Certificate·CEO Loan Switching·VAT Box·Find Policy Loans·Find Government Support Funds·Small Business Consulting, among other services.

Cumulative lending has reached approximately KRW 7 trillion, while the outstanding loan balance stood at KRW 4 trillion as of the end of September. As of the end of last month, monthly active users (MAU) exceeded 1.2 million, and weekly active users (WAU) topped 1 million.

This month, KakaoBank will launch a refinancing product that allows customers to transfer individual business loans from other financial institutions to KakaoBank’s real estate-secured loan. In 2027, it plans to expand into corporate finance by launching a joint loan with Busan Bank.

A KakaoBank representative said, "We will continue to reduce the financial burden on individual business owners and expand services that provide practical support for running their businesses."

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