South Korean Banks Shift Lending Toward SMEs

South Korean banks are shifting corporate lending toward small and medium-sized enterprises amid the Lee Jae-myung administration's productive-finance push, Asia Today reported Feb. 3. At end-January the five major banks held 847.35 trillion won in corporate loans, with SME lending rising 1.48 trillion won in January and technology-credit balances rebounding to 161.63 trillion won at year-end. Banks set 5.5–6.5% growth targets and plan 430 trillion won injections.