Hana Bank said on February 11 that it has launched a loan product applying a preferential interest rate of up to 2.0 percentage points a year to companies issued the "AI·SW Company ESG Management Diagnostic Certificate" by the Korea Software Industry Association (KOSA). The preferential terms apply with no limit on the loan ceiling, and both working capital and facility funds are eligible to apply. The size of the reduction is set differently according to a company's credit rating. The program is called the "KOSA AI·SW Company ESG Management Diagnosis Interest Rate Preference Program."
Until now, ESG has largely been an area of writing reports and responding to assessments for small and medium technology companies. Cases where an assessment grade is linked directly to funding terms have centered on large corporations and listed companies. This product puts whether a company holds the certificate into the calculation of interest rates, turning assessment results into a cost item.
KOSA's diagnostic system was developed for the AI and software industry through i-ESG, a company that supplies ESG diagnosis and management solutions. It was launched in 2024 and is presented as an industry-specific diagnostic system. The diagnostic items include AI ethics, data protection, algorithm transparency, information security and digital accountability, alongside general environmental, social and governance indicators. Quantifying the risk factors of software companies as separate items is where it parts from general ESG assessment.
The spread of international regulation, including the EU's sustainable finance disclosure framework and stronger ESG due diligence in global supply chains, was presented as the background to the product's launch. Software partner companies inside the supply chains of large corporations have to pass the due diligence demands of their clients to keep their contracts. For a company that has found the cost of a diagnosis hard to bear, the interest rate benefit leaves room to work as an incentive that offsets that burden.
Suh Yu-seok, deputy president of Hana Bank's corporate group, said the bank put out the product to support the growth of AI and software companies with technological strength as the ESG regulatory environment spreads, and said it would continue productive financial support for venture, small and medium, and mid-sized companies. Suh Sung-il, standing vice chairman of KOSA, said the association would widen cooperation with financial and public institutions to back its member companies' ESG management. Kim Jong-woong, chief executive of i-ESG, and Park Seung-ae, chair of KOSA's ESG committee, attended the launch event along with the two.
Gauging the effect requires a few more figures. The base rate before the preferential treatment, the reduction brackets by diagnosis grade, and the handling period and supply scale are all ahead of a confirmed announcement. How many companies have received a diagnosis since the system was introduced in 2024 has not been published either. Only when these figures come out can it be calculated how much the 2.0 percentage point figure actually cuts the interest burden.
Even so, this product reads as the first case to expose the link between ESG assessment and funding costs in the small and medium enterprise area. Once assessment grades begin to be reflected in the price of money beyond contract eligibility, a diagnosis shifts in character from an optional item to a financial variable. If other financial institutions attach similar products, this current could widen to the level of the whole sector.
Companies considering a diagnosis can check the detailed terms and the application procedure on the KOSA website and at Hana Bank branches. Rather than the preferential rate itself, they need to check the interest rate actually assigned to their own credit rating. How much one certificate changes, and which line of the interest statement it changes, can be checked at the counter.
