State lender to steer funds into AI and chips under Lee administration priority
Industrial Bank of Korea President Chang Min-young took office Friday, vowing to deploy 300 trillion won ($207 billion) by 2030 to support the government’s “productive finance” drive aimed at revitalizing growth.
“Small and mid-sized enterprises are bearing the brunt of low growth and industrial restructuring,” Chang said at his inauguration ceremony Friday. “IBK must move beyond being a simple capital provider and become a financial partner that leads industrial transformation.”
The five-year commitment aligns with a key policy priority of President Lee Jae Myung’s administration, which seeks to channel funding into investments that enhance productivity rather than conventional interest-based lending.
IBK, a state-run lender focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, plans to direct much of the funding toward strategic industries including artificial intelligence, semiconductors and autonomous driving, which officials see as future growth engines.
Chang said the bank will revamp its credit evaluation system to better reflect technological capability and growth potential, while expanding its capital markets role through a dedicated task force.
He also pledged to embed artificial intelligence across operations. “We will combine our extensive corporate finance data with AI to enhance analytics, credit screening and soundness management, while delivering hyper-personalized digital financial services,” he said.
On digital assets, Chang described stablecoins as “a core infrastructure technology that will reshape capital flows,” adding that IBK will adopt a digital asset model that complies with regulations and prioritizes stability
Chang’s inauguration came about a month after his formal appointment, following resistance from the bank’s labor union over wage-related disputes.
Born in 1964, Chang previously served as chief executive of IBK Asset Management. He joined IBK in 1989 and held senior roles including vice president of the risk management group and head of asset management.
jwc@heraldcorp.com
