Busan lands three financial firms at international finance center

The Busan city government announced Monday that it has attracted three new financial firms to D-Space on the 63rd floor of the Busan International Finance Center (BIFC). The incoming tenants are Segyero Ship Finance, a ship finance specialist; the Korea Shipowners' Mutual Protection & Indemnity Association, a marine liability insurance body; and Dinvestment, which has been selected to manage a national growth fund.

With the three additions, D-Space will house 10 institutions in total, joining seven existing tenants — Citibank Korea, UIB Non-Life Insurance Brokers, KDX Consortium, DB Securities, Waterline Partners, Clarksons Korea and Synergy IB Investment — cementing its standing as a global financial business hub.

Segyero Ship Finance provides ship investment, management and financial solutions, while the Korea Shipowners' Mutual Protection & Indemnity Association supports risk management for shipping companies. Dinvestment is set to handle private investment capital inflows and investment in growth-stage companies.

The city said it expects the new arrivals to increase the diversity of financial firms within the BIFC and further strengthen the maritime finance value chain. The addition of ship finance and marine insurance specialists will complement existing policy finance institutions already based there — Korea Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) — enabling a one-stop maritime finance service covering everything from vessel transactions and fundraising to insurance and risk management for the shipping and shipbuilding industries.

The city also anticipates new financial business models emerging through close collaboration among D-Space tenants. The new firms could partner with Clarksons Korea, which holds shipping market data, to offer integrated vessel asset services, and explore innovative ventures — such as fractional investment in ship assets and tokenization — with digital finance institutions including KDX Consortium and DB Securities. The move is also expected to add private equity capabilities to what has been a policy finance-centered structure.

The city plans to develop D-Space into a core hub for the financial industry, going beyond its role as office space. To that end, it will support joint projects among tenants and identify areas for cooperation between policy finance and private capital, while also working to generate quality financial-sector jobs.

"The attraction of these three firms is significant in that highly specialized financial companies have newly established themselves in Busan, raising the diversity of our financial industry," Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo said. "We will actively recruit competitive firms in marine insurance, digital finance and asset management, and breathe new vitality into Busan's financial industry with the BIFC at its center."