Export-Import Bank of Korea to deploy AI across operations, streamline loan reviews

The Export-Import Bank of Korea said Thursday it is launching a broad initiative to improve operational efficiency using generative AI.

The bank has completed its selection of a final contractor for the project to build an "AI-based intelligent workspace" and will begin system design this month.

The bank plans to develop an AI credit-screening system that draws on its extensive customer data and accumulated records to shorten the complex loan review process. Automating repetitive data verification tasks will free staff to focus on core duties such as credit assessment and evaluation.

A corporate finance AI document-review function will automate the screening and verification of paperwork, cutting wait times in the approval queue. The bank also plans to introduce a smart one-stop reporting system that uses conversational AI to handle overseas investment filings in a single process.

Supporting these efforts, the bank will build a cross-departmental collaboration center, a work-pattern-analyzing AI assistant and a natural-language conversational search system.

The project reflects the reform vision of bank President Hwang Ki-yeon, who has repeatedly called for boldly dismantling unproductive legacy procedures and refocusing on the essence of the work.

At a recent ceremony marking the bank's 50th anniversary, Hwang pledged that the institution would become a central pillar of policy finance through safeguarding economic security, supporting the co-growth of small and midsize enterprises, and expanding practical economic cooperation.

"Through an AI-centered work environment, we will establish an innovative corporate culture unique to this bank — one where unnecessary formalities do not hold us back and creative ideas are shared freely," a bank official said.