![Woori Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Herald DB]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/12/news-p.v1.20260703.8d7a0ea0cb9d401693903e74efa925a2_P1.jpg)
The yardstick for corporate banking is shifting. Lenders are moving away from measuring loan repayment probability and total credit volume, and toward "productive finance" — a framework that asks how much financial support has actually lifted the competitiveness of individual companies and the broader industrial ecosystem.
Woori Bank is pushing beyond the conventional model of channeling funds to individual firms, extending financial support across advanced strategic industries and their entire value chains. The bank aims to drive growth across the industrial ecosystem by backing research and development, equipment investment and business expansion at each stage of a company's development.
Woori Bank said Wednesday its productive finance supply reached 16.3 trillion won ($11.5 billion) as of the end of the first half of this year. The nine advanced strategic industries covered include AI, semiconductors, secondary batteries, future mobility, biotech, defense, hydrogen, displays and robots. Companies involved in related equipment and components, supply chains and infrastructure are also eligible.
At the start of the year, the bank distributed a "Productive Finance Guidebook" to its branch network to spell out eligibility criteria and implementation procedures.
The push to concentrate funding on advanced strategic industries reflects a judgment that South Korea's economic growth engine is shifting rapidly. As the center of gravity in export industries moves from steel, shipbuilding and automobiles toward semiconductors, AI and secondary batteries, the bank believes finance must evolve alongside it.
Advanced industries require years of heavy R&D and capital investment before reaching commercialization — a stretch that companies often cannot survive on internal cash alone, commonly known as the "valley of death." The bank also recognized that industrial competitiveness cannot be secured by a handful of flagship companies alone; materials, parts and equipment suppliers and subcontractors must grow together to build a stable supply chain and industrial ecosystem.
Woori Bank President Jeong Jin-wan is personally leading the productive finance push. Jeong is a corporate banking specialist who has served as head of the small and medium enterprise group and worked extensively in corporate sales. He is focused on reinforcing a field-driven support structure built on the bank's traditional strength in corporate finance.
From R&D to expansion: stage-by-stage financial support
Rather than offering a single loan product across the board, Woori Bank has built a system that links guarantees and loans to each company's technological profile, growth stage and funding purpose.
At the technology development and commercialization stage, the bank improves access to finance through guarantee-linked agreements with institutions such as the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation. Companies that have moved into equipment investment and production receive facility and working capital loans. At the business expansion stage, the bank broadens its support through co-prosperity loans for subcontractors of large companies.
The bank has also steadily expanded its guarantee products. In October last year, it signed a guarantee agreement with the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund to scale up productive finance in advanced strategic industries. In April this year, it added an inclusive finance guarantee covering companies in the materials, parts and equipment sector as well as those in new growth-engine industries.
With the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, the bank launched a guarantee program for social venture companies in September last year — the first among commercial banks to do so. In December of the same year, it became the first commercial bank to introduce the "AtoF Future Strategic Industry Development" guarantee, targeting AI, biotech, content, defense, energy and advanced manufacturing.
In March this year, Woori Bank became the sole commercial bank to launch a "High-Growth Scale-Up Guarantee" for companies that the Korea Technology Finance Corporation has recognized for their technology and growth potential.
14 Biz Prime Centers: expanding regional and technology-based outreach
The bank's dedicated corporate banking units, the Biz Prime Centers, now number 14 nationwide. Starting with the Banwol-Sihwa center in July 2023, Woori Bank has opened centers in succession near national industrial complexes and industrial clusters — including Namdong-Songdo, Changwon-Noksan, Daegu-North Gyeongsang Province, Ulsan, Pangyo, and Hwaseong-Pyeongtaek.
In December last year, the bank opened a Gangnam center focused on advanced strategic industry companies as its primary clients in the region. In July this year, it added an NPS-North Jeolla Province center targeting investment demand related to the National Pension Service and the Saemangeum development zone. Each center provides not only corporate credit but also comprehensive solutions including financial consulting.
The bank is also diversifying its channels for identifying high-quality companies. The "Rising Leaders 300" program links KOTRA-recommended firms to preferential loans for outstanding mid-sized companies. A total of 225 companies have been selected across the first through seventh cohorts, of which 113 were recommended by KOTRA. Selection for the eighth cohort is currently underway.
The bank has also signed MOUs with 12 regional intellectual property centers across the country to strengthen technology-based lending over collateral-based assessments. A matching support program using a co-prosperity fund channels capital to first- and second-tier materials, parts and equipment subcontractors.
The "Woori Regional Leading Company Loan," which offers preferential interest rates to small and medium-sized enterprises in new growth, advanced and core industries outside the Greater Seoul area, is also expanding rapidly.
Lending volume grew from 166.85 billion won across 179 cases in the fourth quarter of last year to 446.4 billion won across 371 cases in the first half of this year. The average loan per case rose 29.1 percent, from 930 million won to 1.2 billion won — reflecting growth not only in the number of loans extended but also in the size of funding provided to each company.
Going forward, Woori Bank plans to do more than simply grow its total corporate loan book, instead designing an increasingly sophisticated financial support framework tailored to the characteristics of each industry. The bank intends to expand productive finance centered on advanced strategic industries, using guarantee agreements with the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation alongside its regional Biz Prime Centers as twin pillars, while also strengthening AI-based corporate analysis and industry-specific financial expertise.
won@heraldcorp.com
