À̹ÌÁö È®´ë [Photo provided by Naver Financial]
Naver Financial under internet giant Naver will penetrate deeper into the financial realm by servicing loans to vendors on its shopping platform.
Together with brick-and-mortar partner Mirea Asset Capital, the online entity will provide loans in interest rate in 4 percent range to online merchants who can only draw costly borrowings from traditional lenders due to strict credit scaling, said Choi In-hyuk, CEO of Naver Financial, at a press conference held Tuesday.
Under the plan, small vendors on Naver Smart Store will be able to receive loans of up to their monthly sales at interest rates similar to those offered by other lenders, Choi said. Borrowing limit and rates will be decided based on the growth potential and sales volume of each vendor.
¡°Starting from Smart Store vendors, more businesses using mobile payment system Naver Pay will be able to enjoy the service,¡± he added.
Naver Financial earlier developed own credit scale dubbed alternative credit scoring system (ACSS) based on its data and artificial intelligence algorithms technologies. It evaluates credit of Smart Store vendors by analyzing sales and return rate and then Mirae Asset Capital provides loans based on the information.
The company also is preparing to launch a system that will allow faster transfer of payment to the sellers. Currently, sellers usually have to wait an average 9.4 days until after the e-commerce operator, the holder of funds on product sales, finalizes the cash transfer following the transaction completion.
Naver Financial aims to shorten the wait time to an average 5.4 days, with a fraud detection system that helps detect risky sellers.
¡°As a platform operator, we¡¯re seeking for cooperative ties with financial companies, not a competitive one,¡± noted Choi. ¡°The service is to help SMEs and our partnership can create more innovative ideas.¡±
By Oh Dae-seok, Lee Sae-ha and Lee Ha-yeon
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]