KB Kookmin Bank said on Tuesday it signed a "K-content productive financing support agreement" with the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Korea Creative Content Agency.

The agreement aims to support the sustainable growth of cultural industry companies.

KB Kookmin Bank will make a special contribution of 1 billion won to the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. Based on this, it will support a total of 20 billion won in guaranteed loans secured by guarantee certificates. The Korea Creative Content Agency will identify and recommend promising content companies through content value assessments.

Support will be provided to companies eligible for the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund's cultural industry completion guarantees and cultural industry specialised guarantees. They include companies involved in content planning, production and commercialisation, and those that use content intellectual property.

Eligible companies can receive guarantee certificates with a 100 percent guarantee ratio for 3 years. If linked to the "cultural content company interest subsidy agreement loan", they can also receive an interest subsidy benefit of 2.5 percentage points for 1 year.

A KB Kookmin Bank official said, "With global competition intensifying, we hope this will provide practical help in strengthening the competitiveness of K-content companies."