"They lend money and even defer repayments"...Support expanded for small businesses affected by Homeplus

[Financial News] Policy support for small businesses facing financial difficulties due to the Homeplus crisis is expanding from the provision of new funds to easing the burden of repaying existing loans. The maturities of policy-funded loans will be extended by one year so that affected tenant and trading businesses can ease the immediate burden of repaying principal and focus on restoring normal operations.
 According to industry sources on the 6th, the Small Enterprise and Market Service (SEMAS) is accepting applications from small businesses affected by Homeplus for extensions of policy-funded loan maturities and deferments of repayments.
 The measure was introduced to support the recovery of affected small businesses by reducing the repayment burden on policy-funded loans in addition to providing existing financial support.
 SEMAS has so far provided the Temporary Business Difficulty Fund to small businesses affected by Homeplus, with loans capped at 100 million won and interest rates 0.5 percentage points below the base rate for policy funds.
 Eligible applicants are business owners among Homeplus-affected tenant and trading businesses who are currently repaying principal or hold small business policy-funded loans that mature this year.
 Those selected for support can extend their loan maturities by 12 months. During the deferment period, they only need to pay interest and do not have to repay principal.
 Applications can be submitted through the Small Business Policy Funds website.
 In Tae-yeon, president of SEMAS, said, "We will examine the difficulties faced in the field and spare no effort in providing support so that affected small businesses can recover their operations as soon as possible."
[email protected] Kim Hyun-cheol Reporter