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/ The Financial Services Commission (FSC).

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is rolling out a "Crisis Response Special Guarantee" program to support small, medium, and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by the ongoing Homeplus crisis.

On July 6, the FSC held a "Financial Sector Response Review Meeting on the Homeplus Crisis," chaired by Shin Jin-chang, the director general of the FSC. As a follow-up to the "Support Plan for Homeplus Workers and Partners" announced by an inter-agency task force on July 3, the meeting was organized to review the financial difficulties and current support status of partner firms following the decision to terminate the corporate rehabilitation proceedings, and to discuss further response strategies. Representatives from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the Korea Federation of Banks, the five major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup), and policy financial institutions attended the meeting.

Since the commencement of the Homeplus rehabilitation proceedings on March 4 last year, the financial sector has provided a total of 7,546 cases of financial support worth approximately 5 trillion won to partner firms over the past 16 months. Specifically, banks provided 4.8944 trillion won in maturity extensions and 122.3 billion won in payment deferrals for accounts receivable-backed loans, while injecting 15.8 billion won in fresh funds for businesses requiring urgent liquidity.

"We are grateful for the voluntary support efforts made by the financial sector," said Shin Jin-chang, director general of the FSC. "We ask for your continued cooperation in easing the cash flow bottlenecks of small and medium-sized partner firms through additional maturity extensions and payment deferrals moving forward."

To counter the potential non-settlement of delivery payments caused by the termination of the Homeplus rehabilitation process, the government has decided to provide emergency liquidity through the "Crisis Response Special Guarantee" targeted at SMEs and mid-sized enterprises. The special guarantee program was originally established in May last year to assist businesses affected by U.S. tariff measures and industrial crises. For eligible enterprises, the guarantee limit will be raised from the current 300 million won to 500 million won. The screening procedure will be streamlined through a general evaluation, the guarantee ratio will be increased from 85% to 90%, and the guarantee fee rate will be slashed by 0.5 percentage points. The total support volume is expected to reach up to 300 billion won.

In addition, the FSS will continue to operate its existing "Financial Counseling Center for Homeplus Suppliers and Tenants" and enhance its one-stop counseling system in coordination with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Small Enterprise and Market Service.

"As a pan-government task force is currently up and running, we will actively cooperate through inter-agency collaboration to ensure that financial sector support is delivered swiftly on the ground," the FSC stated.

                                                                                                               Lee Bo-ra