Hana Bank said it signed a business agreement with Naver Pay and the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation for mutual cooperation to support small business owners.

The agreement was designed to ease funding burdens by providing financial support to sole proprietor small businesses that have business premises in Seoul.

Hana Bank will provide support by creating cooperative funds worth a total of 13.7 billion won. Eligible businesses are those that have premises in Seoul, installed Naver Pay's offline integrated terminal, Npay Connect, and then received a guarantee certificate from the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation. The loan limit is up to 100 million won per business.

The Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation plans to support funding by applying a preferential 100 percent guarantee ratio when issuing new guarantee certificates. It will also pursue a plan to reduce merchants' burdens for installation costs when adopting the Npay Connect terminal.

Guarantee applications will be available from Feb. 13 through the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation application or its comprehensive support centers.

Hana Bank will also run an event through its Hana OneQ app in connection with the agreement. It will pay 30,000 won if a sole proprietor who installed Npay Connect registers a Hana Bank account as the payment account and payment proceeds are deposited into that account.

Seo Yoo-seok (서유석), deputy head of Hana Bank's corporate group, said, "I hope this agreement will help ease small business owners' financial burdens." He said, "We will continue financial support for small business owners going forward."