Hana Bank will expand financial support for small and medium-sized semiconductor materials, parts and equipment companies in cooperation with the Korea Technology Finance Corp.

Hana Bank said on Thursday it signed a "Semiconductor Industry Scale-up Financial Support" business agreement with the technology guarantor for small firms operating in the semiconductor industry.

Under the agreement, Hana Bank and the Korea Technology Finance Corp will create agreement guarantees worth 100 billion won. The support targets semiconductor-related small firms facing management burdens from prolonged high inflation and high interest rates.

Companies using the agreement guarantees will receive benefits for guarantee fee support. The Korea Technology Finance Corp will cut the guarantee fee by 0.3 percentage points for 3 years, and Hana Bank will support the fee by 0.5 percentage points for 2 years. This will reduce the guarantee fee burden by up to 0.8 percentage points.

Hana Bank also plans to link preferential interest-rate products tailored to the semiconductor industry and consulting services, in addition to the agreement guarantees.

Seo Yoo-seok (서유석), a vice president at Hana Bank, said the initiative was a shared-growth project to strengthen the fundamentals of the semiconductor industry, which he called a future strategic asset for South Korea, beyond simply supplying finance. He said Hana Bank would lead practical support for semiconductor-related sectors as well as second- and third-tier partner companies of large firms to put productive finance into practice.