At a chicken specialty restaurant in Seoul, employees divide the tasks of frying and packaging while continuing operations. [Photo = Korea Business Review DB]

Financial accessibility for such small dining industry workers is expected to increase due to improvements in small business credit evaluations.

Mr. A, a self-employed person in his 40s who runs a chicken restaurant, is currently unable to cross the threshold of bank loans despite a steady increase in delivery app orders.

Having opened less than two years ago, his financial transaction history is short, and he has no real estate to offer as collateral. Under the existing credit evaluation system, he is not classified as a business owner building up legitimate operating performance, but simply as someone with an 'insufficient financial history.' Amid the decades-long repetition of this structural contradiction, financial authorities have finally drawn their swords.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) held the 3rd Credit Evaluation System Reform Task Force (TF) meeting on the 9th and announced the introduction of an AI-based credit evaluation system, the so-called 'SCB (Scoring for Credit and Business),' which evaluates the growth potential and prospects of small business owners by analyzing non-financial data such as sales, commercial districts, and business types using artificial intelligence (AI). This opens the door to a new financial paradigm that breaks away from the traditional uniform credit evaluation method and judges loan eligibility centered on the future value of a business.