The South Korea Financial Services Commission designated Naver Financial as an agent to pilot an alternative credit assessment service for small businesses and middle- and lower-credit borrowers. The measure continues efforts to broaden credit access through nonfinancial data and allows Naver Financial to perform part of participating lenders’ loan assessment work. It is the 38th designation since the regime began in May 2018. Naver Financial will combine financial information with data such as Smart Store traffic and sales, payments and content creation activity. K Bank and Welcome Savings Bank will use the resulting assessments to make final decisions on loan approval and limits. The service targets applicants, including borrowers at or below the top 50% credit-score threshold, who may struggle to demonstrate repayment capacity through conventional financial data, with the aim of improving access to reasonably priced credit and reducing reliance on high-cost borrowing.
2026-08-27South Korea Financial Services Commission
South Korea Financial Services Commission designates Naver Financial to pilot alternative credit assessments for underserved borrowers
The South Korea Financial Services Commission has designated Naver Financial to pilot alternative credit assessments for small business owners and middle- and low-credit borrowers. Naver Financial will combine financial and nonfinancial data, while K Bank and Welcome Savings Bank retain responsibility for final loan approval, limits and issuance.