After a massive leak of personal information at Coupang, the government's plan to prepare a trade insurance program worth about 100 billion won for small and midsize corporations in the retail industry also hit a snag. Coupang had been in talks to support the contributions needed to operate the trade insurance product, but the data leak has made the grants uncertain.
According to reporting compiled by ChosunBiz on the 9th, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure) had been preparing a "win-win finance for the retail sector" plan for an announcement at the end of this month, but the Coupang incident disrupted the schedule. Under the government's win-win finance plan, large corporations in each industry would make grants to the trade insurance fund together with banks, and K-sure would provide guarantee products to small and midsize corporations based on the contributions.
Starting with the auto industry in Aug., the government has sequentially announced trade insurance tied to the steel industry in recent weeks. In autos, Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Hana Bank made grants of 10 billion won and 30 billion won, respectively, to launch a 630 billion won policy; in steel, POSCO and Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) made grants of 5 billion won and 15 billion won, respectively, to launch a 400 billion won policy.
In the retail sector, multiple large corporations, including Coupang, have been in talks with the government for more than half a year. To supply at least 100 billion won in trade insurance, they had been discussing making about 2 billion won in grants with several commercial banks.
Coupang had verbally expressed an intention to make grants, but discussions were suspended after the recent massive personal information leak. In response, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) is continuing talks with other corporations.
Even if another corporation is selected, announcing the win-win finance plan for retail within the year, as originally targeted, has become difficult. A government official said, "Whether to make grants is entirely the corporations' choice," and noted, "The goal of extending the win-win finance model to the retail sector remains unchanged." Coupang said it "cannot confirm" whether it will participate in the win-win finance program.