Finda eyes AI-native savings bank with fewer than 50 staff

Loan comparison platform Finda is planning to run its soon-to-be-acquired Daewon Savings Bank as an "AI-native" institution with fewer than 50 employees, relying on AI agents to handle most day-to-day operations. The company intends to grow the bank's assets rapidly through nationwide contactless personal credit loans and plans to raise additional capital as the business expands. Key shareholder JB Financial Group may also participate in any future capital increase.

"We are aiming to keep total headcount at the savings bank below 50," a Finda official said Monday. "The plan is to have AI agents handle most tasks so the bank can operate with a lean workforce."

Finda has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a 100 percent stake in Daewon Savings Bank for about 12 billion won ($8.94 million) and is awaiting final regulatory approval. The Financial Services Commission is scheduled to deliberate and vote on the major shareholder change at its regular meeting Friday. Once the acquisition is complete, Finda — currently a loan product comparison and brokerage platform — will expand into a licensed financial institution that takes deposits and extends loans directly.

The company's core differentiator is AI-driven automation. Finda plans to delegate to AI agents a large share of tasks that human staff handle at conventional financial firms, cutting both headcount and operating costs. "We are currently developing a large language model specialized for the financial sector," the official said. "Our goal is to build a savings bank where AI is the starting point, but we are not yet in a position to disclose specifics on loan screening or credit assessment methods."

On the lending side, Finda will focus on contactless personal credit loans offered nationwide. Daewon Savings Bank is a small institution headquartered in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, with total assets of just 3.1 billion won as of the first half of this year and virtually no outstanding loan balance. Finda plans to grow the asset base by originating new loans after the acquisition closes.

"Daewon Savings Bank currently has almost no loan assets, so we need to build them up quickly," the official said. "We intend to strengthen operations by focusing on nationwide contactless personal credit loans."

Finda also plans to take full advantage of recent deregulation on regional lending requirements. Savings banks outside the Greater Seoul area are currently required to extend at least 40 percent of their total loans within their designated operating zones. However, the FSC has allowed savings banks with assets below 1 trillion won — effective last November — to exclude 50 percent of contactless personal credit loans originated outside their operating zone from the total loan base used to calculate the regional lending ratio. This effectively gives such banks more room to expand lending in other regions while still meeting their local lending obligations.

"We need to fill 40 percent of our loan mix from the Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province and Gangwon Province areas, but contactless personal credit loans made outside our operating zone count at only half their value when calculating the mandatory ratio," the official said. "That gives us significantly more capacity to grow nationwide contactless personal credit loans, and we plan to push hard in that area to build assets quickly."

Additional capital will also be needed to support loan asset growth, though the timing and scale of any capital raise have yet to be determined. "Given how small Daewon Savings Bank is, a capital increase will clearly be necessary to grow the business," the official said. "But since the acquisition has not yet been approved, we have not decided on the specifics of when or how much."

JB Financial Group has been mentioned as a potential participant in any future capital raise. The group became a major shareholder after making a strategic investment in Finda in 2023, acquiring roughly a 15 percent stake. "JB Financial Group holds the largest stake after the two founders," the official said. "There is a possibility they would join in if we proceed with a capital increase down the road."

If regulatory approval proceeds as scheduled, Finda aims to begin operations in early 2027. "If we receive approval for the major shareholder change this year, we want to formally launch operations in early next year," the official said. "We have not locked in January as a hard date, but the goal is to be up and running within the first quarter." On the question of relocating the bank's headquarters after the acquisition, the official said several candidate locations are under consideration but no decision has been made.