Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai, Hana President Ji Sung-kyu and Hana Card President Jang Kyung-hoon attend an emergency meeting of CEOs of the group’s subsidiaries on March 2 to discuss ways of providing financial support to small businesses, buffeted by the spread of COVID-19. (Photos: Hana Financial Group)

Hana Financial Group recently purchased Onuri vouchers and local currency worth 10 billion won. The step is designed to revitalize the local economy as small business owners are grappling with hardships caused by the spread of the novel coronavrius.

Onuri coupons and local currency, issued by local governments targeting traditional markets and mom and pop stores, are expected to have a direct effect in boosting small businesses’ sales, the financial group said. Hana Financial Group executives and staff have volunteered to buy Onuri vouchers and local currency with part of their salary for six months.

Hana Financial Group is actively engaged in programs to provide support to companies and small businesses, which have been dealt severe blow by the spread of the virus.

Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai convened an emergency meeting of CEOs of the group’s subsidiaries on March 2 in which he called for extending the maturities of loans owed by SMEs and small business owners in the Daegu-Gyeongsangbuk-do area, the epicenter of the virus cluster epidemic, via non-contact screening.

The meeting came shortly after Chairman Eun Sung-soo of Financial Services Commission (FSC) had a breakfast gathering of the chairmen of the nation’s five financial groups.

Hana Financial Group donated 1 billion won to support medical personnel working in the Daegu-Gyeongsangbuk-do area while providing 400 billion won in Hana Bank’s management stabilization fund and contributed 10 billion won to local credit guarantee institutions in the area. In the same context, the financial group also donated tens of hundreds of masks.

Hana Financial Group and Good Neighbors hold an event to support households with infants who experience hard times in the wake of the spread of COVID-19.

The financial group’s active support and assistance to companies and people suffering hard times caused by the spread of the virus comes in the context of Chairman Kim’s management tenet: inclusive financing designed to ease loan access to those in the underprivileged bracket, reduce financial burden and further protecting financial clients.

Hana Financial Group has steadily developed diverse financial products to expand financial opportunities to the underprivileged and support their self-reliance.

The financial group established a three-year plan to extend policy financing worth 1.7 trillion won for those in the underprivileged bracket in 2018.

Under the plan, the group has implanted policy financing loans for those in the underprivileged bracket like the “Sunshine Loan.” Beneficiaries of the loans are inclusive of construction crews and other daily workers, as well as all business owners who cannot have their employment certificates and income documents issued.

One of the financial group’s representative loans for those in the underprivileged bracket is the so-called Conversion Loan, designed to change loans from secondary financial institutions into ones extended by a commercial bank. The group has set aside 484.7 billion won for the program.

Hana Financial Group is making efforts to lay a foundation to protect financial clients above the financial support to those in the underprivileged bracket. To this end, the group established a “customers’ complaint removal committee” in August 2018. CEOs of the group’s seven subsidiaries have participated as members of the committee and corrected or overhauled inconveniences and irrational practices in the perspective of consumers.