Agreement to Provide Easier Credit at Year End

The Board of Directors Meeting held on November 19 agreed to earnestly endeavor as private financial institutions to respond to the credit need of sound customers and make lending smooth and available during the year-end period.The text of the agreement follows.To cope with increasing uncertainty about recent economic and financial condition, the government drafted recently the "Extensive Policy for Accelerating Reform". It aims at quickly recovering the intermediary function of banks by speeding up with the disposal of bad loans and also mobilizing forces to revitalize the finance and other industries.The Policy, while intending to accelerate the disposal of bad loans, at the same time calls for building a safety net for employment and small and medium-sized companies by utilizing measures to be implemented by local governments, to alleviate the effect of the acceleration. It also asks private financial institutions to give full consideration to loans to small and medium-sized companies.Thus, we, private financial institutions, are expected to respond to the credit need of companies smoothly so as not to disrupt the sound activity of corporations. The credit crunch is particularly felt in December due to a heightened need for credit among corporations. It is the responsibility of private financial institutions to earnestly meet the credit needs of sound companies during this period.At this critical time, we agree to proactively respond to the credit need of sound customers and make lending smooth and available during the year-end period.