FSC promotes fintech and innovation in financial services. In order to encourage convergence and collaboration between finance and information technology, FSC launched the financial regulatory sandbox scheme in April 2019, through which more than one hundred ‘innovative financial services’ have been designated. The regulatory sandbox program allows fintechs and start-ups to test out their ideas without worrying about the regulatory impediments. In addition, Korea’s open banking system was fully launched in December 2019, opening up payment networks to both banks and fintechs through a joint network. By creating a financial data exchange platform, fostering MyData industry and opening up extensive sets of public financial data stored at major public institutions, FSC is also working to create an environment where big data and AI can play a larger role in finance. Policies intended to promote innovation also include providing tailored support to the Korean fintech firms to help them grow and scale up as global unicorns by easing regulations, expanding investment and providing assistance for overseas business expansion.
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Nov 22, 2021
- Additional Types of Public Financial Data Made Available through Open APIs
- The FSC announced an expansion in the availability of public financial data offered through open APIs at www.data.go.kr. From November 22, public financial data managed by the Korea Exchange, Korea Financial Investment Association, Korea Life Insurance Association, General Insurance Association of Korea and Korea Inclusive Finance Agency will be opened up for use at www.data.go.kr through 18 standardized APIs with 40 functions. Since launching the public financial data platform in April 2019, which began to offer data managed by nine state-backed financial institutions and relevant agencies, the FSC has worked on making more types of public financial data available for a wider use. From June 9, 2020, public financial data from businesses and financial companies became available through open APIsand in September 2020, the authorities along with relevant institutions agreed to promote further opening of public financial data and facilitate its use in the private sector. As a follow-up measure to the last years agreement, the authorities will further open up public financial data managed by the five aforementioned institutions to promote big data analytics through data convergence, etc. The newly added data types include information about stocks and bonds, funds, insurance products, microloan products, etc. The authorities expect that opening up financial data stored and managed by public financial institutions and relevant agencies will help promote innovation and contribute to job creation in the private sector. The authorities will continue to work to meet data demands and seek improvements in the provision of public financial data. * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Nov 17, 2021
- FSC Chairman Pledges Policy Support in Meeting with Specialized Credit Finance Sector
- FSC Chairman Koh Seungbeom held a meeting with the heads of credit card companies and other credit finance companies on November 17 and discussed ways to further promote the development of the specialized credit finance sector. Chairmans Remarks The financial industry is undergoing a major change with digital transformation taking place and the convergence of industries between the financial and non-financial sectors. Specialized credit finance businesses are also facing major challenges and thus need to seek alternative ways to strengthen their competitiveness. In this regard, the government will provide support to help promote further growth of the sector. First, the authorities will work to support credit card companies to grow as integrated payment service providers. The authorities will allow credit card companies to provide MyPayment services and expand the types of ancillary service areas they can assume beyond the currently allowed MyData service, small business CB and big data analytics with the aim of promoting the use of big data for new and innovative business areas. Second, the authorities will provide support to help specialized credit finance companies develop financial service platforms that can offer services tailored to the daily needs of financial consumers. The authorities will continue to promote the development of financial services tailored to the needs of individual consumers using MyPayment and MyData services, while considering the possibility of expanding the sectors platform business services into e-commerce areas, etc. Third, the authorities will work to improve regulations to help facilitate investments in new technology startups, promote contactless (and paperless) sales environment for credit card companies, etc. Innovative ways to deliver financial services to consumers in the specialized credit finance sector can have a significant and immediate impact on the consumers daily needs. As such, the government will continue to listen to
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Sep 13, 2021
- FSC Plans to Make Fractional Trading of Domestic and Foreign Stocks More Widely Available
- The FSC announced its plans to make fractional trading of both domestic and foreign stocks more widely available to help improve access and convenience for investors. Background In 2019, the FSC allowed fractional trading of foreign stocks offered by Shinhan Investment and Korea Investment Securities by designating them as innovative financial services to be granted regulatory exemptions under its financial regulatory sandbox program. As a result, by the end of June 2021, the number of fractional stock traders at Shinhan Investment and Korea Investment Securities reached about 140,000 and 510,000, respectively, with their investment amounts standing at KRW270 million and KRW750 million each. However, fractional trading of domestic stocks remained unavailable due to the principle of indivisibility of shares as well as the non-fractional share-based design with which the domestic securities trading and depository infrastructures was set up. To help improve investor access and convenience, the FSC plans to make improvements to the current fractional trading system and make fractional trading of both domestic and foreign stocks available. Key Details Unlike the current system where individual securities firms have to apply for regulatory exemptions to provide fractional trading services, the new system will be based on a special infrastructure set up at Korea Securities Depository (KSD) that is dedicated to fractional trading and can be accessed and used by any securities firms that wish to offer fractional trading services to their customers. This will strengthen the safety and convenience of fractional trading in both domestic and foreign stocks. (Foreign Stocks) Stock trading in fractional shares of foreign stocks will be directly recorded in the securities firms account books. KSD will maintain separate account books on fraction trades and regularly check their consistency with those of securities firms. Investors will be able to trade in fractional shares of foreig
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Sep 09, 2021
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Sep 08, 2021
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Sep 08, 2021
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Sep 08, 2021
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Jul 29, 2021
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Jul 28, 2021
- Open Banking Service Availability to be Expanded
- With 23 open banking participating fintechs making available their data about customers prepaid deposit balances for open banking, open banking users will be able to access information about their prepaid deposit accounts from mobile applications of major banks or any other open banking offering financial institutions beginning from July 30, 2021. Open banking has expanded rapidly since its first launch in December 2019 as the cumulative number of subscribers reaching more than 89.7 million with about 166.8 million accounts registered as of July 25, 2021. The FSC has worked on gradually expanding the availability of open banking services from more types of financial institutions. As a result, open banking services are now available from about 110 banks, fintechs, mutual finance firms, savings banks, securities firms, credit card companies and the Korea Post. Along with the account balance inquiry and wire transfer functions as well as checking monthly statements for credit cards that have been already in service, users can now access information about their prepaid deposit accounts from any mobile application of their choosing. The authorities will continue to work for advancement of open banking and seek ways to promote the development of an open finance platform, while continuing to work on ensuring system security. * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Jul 22, 2021
- FSC Selects Eight More 'Innovative Financial Services' for Financial Regulatory Sandbox
- The FSC decided to designate eight more financial solutions as innovative financial services at its regular meeting held on July 21. This brings the total number of designated services to 153 since the regulatory sandbox program was first launched on April 1, 2019. Overview of Newly Added Innovative Financial Services 1. A real-name identification and verification service using facial recognition technologies which allows consumers to visit bank branches and use financial services without presenting their ID cards (Daegu Bank, expected in Apr. 2022) 2. A real-name identification and verification service using facial recognition technologies for checking customers personal identification in contactless settings, which will allow customers to open up bank accounts even after the banks regular work hours (Busan Bank, expected in Oct. 2021) 3~5. Online-based telemarketing insurance subscription services using mobile devices that reduce the hassle of reading and recording scripts for insurance telemarketers while still guaranteeing supplemental measures for consumer protection (Toss Insurance, DB Insurance and NongHyup Life Insurance, expected in Oct. 2021, Feb. 2022 and Mar. 2022, respectively) 6~7. QR code enabled credit card payment services which require no physical point-of-service (POS) terminal for businesses to process credit card payments which will help improve convenience for consumers while allowing more small-scale businesses to adopt mobile simply payment methods (Seeroo Information and Paycoq, both expected in H1 2022) 8. A non-recourse accounts receivable factoring service which assumes the risk of buyers failure to honor payment obligations in place of the seller, thereby helping firms with new technologies to raise funds and carry out business operations in a more stable manner (Korea Technology Finance Corporation, expected in Jun. 2022) * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Jul 13, 2021
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Jul 08, 2021
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Jun 29, 2021
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Jun 24, 2021
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Jun 24, 2021
- 2021 Korea Fintech Week Brings About Tangible Outcome for Fintech Advancement
- The 2021 Korea Fintech Week has attracted about 250,000 online visitors so far since its opening on May 26. The offline to online availability of diverse opportunities for exhibition, education, investment and employment has provided important venues for fintechs, financial companies, relevant institutions and individuals seeking jobs in the industry. Through offline IR events and virtual meetings, 29 fintechs were able to attract investments in the amount of about KRW133.7 billion. A total of 54 fintechs, financial companies and relevant institutions participated in the online job fair through which up to 175 individuals will be given job opportunities in fintech or finance sectors. In this years event, 39 foreign-based fintechs, financial companies and investors from 13 different countries participated in online exhibitions, which provided opportunities for global cooperation and overseas expansion. The Korea Fintech Week also featured many expert speakers providing latest trends in the global fintech industry and relevant policy issues. * Please refer to the attached PDF for details.
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Jun 17, 2021
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Jun 16, 2021
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Jun 10, 2021
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Jun 09, 2021
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May 31, 2021
