The point where green finance is applied is shifting from assessment indicators to actual lending windows. The board of the Korea Development Bank last week resolved on a paid-in capital increase worth 395 billion won, and NH Nonghyup Bank executed its first transition loan for low-carbon facility improvements. The signing of a business agreement between the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KIBO) and Nonghyup Bank on a green company assessment project based on the Korean green taxonomy (K-Taxonomy) became known on the 28th. All three cases share the feature of applying the taxonomy directly to loan decisions.
The Korea Development Bank's capital increase takes the form of issuing 79 million new shares with a par value of 5,000 won per share. Because the government holds a 100% stake, issuing new shares amounts to a cash contribution by the government. It is the first time the Korea Development Bank has issued new shares in 2026. The shares are allocated to two places, the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Climate Response Fund, and the breakdown of amounts by institution has yet to be confirmed and announced.
The Climate Response Fund's portion will be used for the KDB Carbon Net Zero Program. The program applies preferential interest rates for up to 20 years on facilities, investment and guarantees for climate tech, hydrogen infrastructure (production, storage, distribution and utilization), offshore wind power projects and supply chain companies. The Climate Response Fund was established in 2022 and, as of January 2026, its operating scale of 2.9057 trillion won is the largest ever. Early this year the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment took over the fund's operation and management from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and newly created the Climate and Energy Finance Division.
Nonghyup Bank's first transition loan went to Bukyung Jeil Livestock Products, a livestock distribution company in Goseong-gun, South Gyeongsang Province. The money is for environmental improvement investment including the installation of a wastewater treatment facility. The loan was executed after a suitability procedure measured against the K-Taxonomy. On the 24th, Lee Dong-won, head of Nonghyup Bank's Goseong-gun branch, and Jeong Rak-kyung, chief executive of the Bukyung Jeil Livestock Products Distribution Center, posed for a commemorative photograph.
The agreement between KIBO and Nonghyup Bank was signed at the bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. Under it, when Nonghyup Bank requests an assessment, KIBO hands over a report verifying suitability under the taxonomy, and the result is reflected in screening for green loans and transition finance. Those confirmed as attending include Lee Jae-pil, a KIBO director, and Lim Se-bin, senior executive vice president of Nonghyup Bank. KIBO supplied 374.8 billion won in new taxonomy-based guarantees through March 2026.
The monetary figures rest on different bases and are hard to compare directly. The Korea Development Bank's 395 billion won is the amount of this contribution, KIBO's 374.8 billion won is a cumulative guarantee supply, and the 154 trillion won the Korea Development Bank presented in 2024 is a target for funds to be put in by 2030. The execution criteria for the 154 trillion won and the current rate of progress were not presented along with it this time.
There are also views that differ from the expansion trend. Ahn Dong-hyun, a professor of economics at Seoul National University, noted on the 29th that 80-90% of bank loans were once corporate loans but that household loans have made up more than 70% since the 1997 foreign exchange crisis, and pointed out that green finance has stopped at expanding loans. His point is that attaching classification standards to screening and money actually flowing into low-carbon facilities are separate matters.
Nonghyup Bank said it would increase green and transition loans in tandem with the group's transition finance strategy and strengthen ESG financial support, but it did not present a target amount or a deadline. The point at which payment for the capital increase and the issuance of new shares are completed, and how many cases KIBO's verification reports pass in actual screening, become the next things to check. What the single wastewater treatment facility in Goseong-gun leaves on the record is that it is the first route by which the taxonomy carried over from paper to equipment.
