[Provided by K bank]
[Provided by K bank]

K bank said Thursday that its cumulative loans to sole proprietors have surpassed 5 trillion won ($3.28 billion).

The bank's annual sole-proprietor lending grew from 260 billion won in 2022, when it first began offering such loans, to 1.84 trillion won last year. In the first half of this year alone, K bank disbursed 1.52 trillion won in sole-proprietor loans. That figure represents about 82 percent of last year's full-year total, meaning the bank came close to matching its entire annual volume in just six months.

Growth was driven particularly by a rapid rise in real estate mortgage loans and guarantee-backed loans. By the end of June, guarantee and secured loans accounted for about 45 percent of the bank's total sole-proprietor credit balance, up from a portfolio previously dominated by unsecured lending — a shift the bank said reflects a more stable, balanced mix.

On the guarantee-backed side, K bank has built partnerships with regional credit guarantee foundations across all metropolitan and provincial governments nationwide, and has since extended that network to municipal-level bodies including Pohang and Gumi. Its real estate mortgage loans have also gained traction on the strength of competitive rates: as of the end of May, K bank's average interest rate on sole-proprietor secured real estate loans stood at 3.49 percent per annum — the lowest among domestic banks, according to Korea Federation of Banks disclosures. The average rate across the 18 banks offering such loans was 4.32 percent at the same date.

Corporate loans now account for 17 percent of K bank's total won-denominated loan balance as of the end of June, up from 7 percent at the end of 2024.

To further strengthen financial support for sole proprietors, K bank plans to raise the per-loan ceiling on guarantee-backed loans and expand the scope of its real estate mortgage lending. Starting Tuesday, the maximum amount per guarantee-backed loan will double from 100 million won to 200 million won, boosting funding access for small-business owners.

In the third quarter, the bank also plans to broaden the types of properties accepted as collateral and the permitted uses of real estate mortgage loans. Eligible collateral will expand beyond apartments to include row houses, multi-family homes, officetels and commercial properties, while loan purposes will extend from working capital to facility investment, allowing the bank to serve a wider range of sole-proprietor financing needs.

Next year, K bank plans to launch a loan service targeting small and medium-sized corporations, marking a full-scale push into corporate banking. The bank said it intends to leverage the digital capabilities and operational experience built through its sole-proprietor business to expand into the small-business corporate lending market and sharpen its overall competitiveness in corporate finance.


won@heraldcorp.com