KB National Bank Implements Individual Business Loan Interest Waiver Program

KB National Bank will launch a support program within this month that uses the interest burden exceeding 5% annualized rate on personal business loans to repay the principal. Its purpose is to directly reduce the financial costs for individual business owners caused by high interest rates, with the core design being that interest not only serves as an expense but also contributes to reducing the principal.

According to the announcement by KB National Bank on May 10, 2026, when individual business owners renew their existing operational loans, if the applicable interest rate exceeds 5% annually, the excess interest amount will automatically be used to repay the principal. The applicable range can go up to a maximum of 4 percentage points. For example, if the loan interest rate is 7%, then the interest in the 2 percentage point range above 5% will be handled as principal repayment. During this process, early repayment fees will also be waived to reduce the borrower’s additional burden.

The support targets are low-credit individual business owners holding Korean won loans with an annualized rate exceeding 5%. However, certain industries such as real estate-related sectors are excluded, and customers with overdue loans are not eligible. Amid the recent trend of banks strengthening support for vulnerable borrowers, this measure can be seen as aimed at benefiting individual business owners with lower credit scores who are subject to relatively higher interest rates. Since higher interest loans lead to faster increases in total repayment burden, linking interest exceeding a certain level to principal reduction can effectively lessen the perceived financial burden.

This project will be promoted as part of KB Financial Group’s “KB National Happiness Hope Project.” KB National Bank believes that reducing the loan balance will also decrease subsequent interest payments, helping to alleviate the financial costs for individual business owners. The bank estimates that over 10k individual borrowers will benefit from this initiative.

This trend indicates that the banking industry’s support for individual business owners and vulnerable borrowers is shifting from merely extending deadlines or delaying repayments toward actively reducing the principal burden. Considering that the short-term elimination of high interest burdens is difficult, the financial sector is likely to further expand more direct cost relief measures targeting individual business owners who are heavily impacted during periods of rising interest rates.