Financial Services Commission Chairman Koh Seung-beom (second from left) speaks at the ‘fintech industry and related financial company meeting’ held at D Camp in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul on the 9th. News 1
There was no Yes Ka To (Naver Kakao Toss). This is the story of a meeting with the Fintech industry held by the Financial Services Commission at the Seolleung D-Camp in Seoul on the 9th. After Koh Seung-beom took office, it was the first meeting with representative companies to listen to the industry’s grievances and discuss current issues, but the three big tech (large information technology) companies were left out. Small and medium-sized fintech companies such as Travel Wallet, Finck, Finta, Habit Factory, Acell Technology, Small Ticket, Settle Bank, and Aton took their place.
Chairman Koh said, “I think big tech and small and medium sized fintech are different,” and directly expressed his intention to apply regulations differently by industry. It means that it will actively respond to the data monopoly of large platforms, but lower the regulatory barriers for small fintechs. While the position of mobile financial platforms has been shrinking due to the successive ‘beating big tech’ and strengthening of the Financial Consumer Protection Act, attention is focused on whether some of the ‘stumbling blocks’ surrounding the fintech industry will disappear.
○One big tech-fintech two-track regulation
After the meeting, Chairman Koh said, “There is an opinion that fintech has a wide range from big tech to start-ups, so it is necessary to look at it separately.” He also replied, “In terms of regulation, we will consider ways to apply different things differently (for big tech and fintech).” This means that regulations can be applied as ‘two-track’ to big tech and small and medium-sized fintech, so-called ‘neka-to’.
He also made it clear that he intends to strengthen supervision for big tech. After the event, Chairman Koh said, “We will actively consult with related organizations to respond to data monopolies caused by the emergence of large platforms.” Also, to the companies attending the event, “Big tech companies already have a lot of personal and credit information. It is also known that he made a remark to the effect that if a business using this is to be conducted, the same approach should be taken with existing financial companies.
Lee Seong-bok, a research fellow at the Capital Market Research Institute who gave a lecture on the day, said, “Just because a platform business model is used, the same rules do not apply to platform-type fintech with low market dominance. It is necessary to create a fair collaboration and competitive environment so that opportunities for qualitative growth are not lost due to unlimited competition.”
○“Review of deregulation, such as gold and silver law”
Chairman Koh emphasized that various regulations that are hindering the fintech industry will also be eased. After the expansion of the Gold Sodium Act in the second half of this year, the plan is to review ways to reinvigorate the financial product comparison and recommendation service of Fintech, which has shrunk.
The fintech industry has been demanding from the authorities to allow fintech companies to provide product comparison and recommendation services, which are interpreted as “intermediation” of financial products under the Financial Services Act. An official from a fintech company said, “According to the current standards, Insuretech (insurance fintech) without an insurance agency (GA) license cannot even provide a service to compare and recommend insurance products. The road is completely blocked,” he pointed out. In response, Chairman Koh replied, “While maintaining the principle of consumer protection for financial services, we will seek improvement measures in line with the evolution of digital technology so that innovative functions such as customized comparison and recommendation can be exhibited.”
It is also said to improve the system related to the My Data business. He emphasized, “We will continue to promote system improvement so that MyData, which will be launched next year, becomes a customized ‘data storage and management platform’.” The plan is to expand the scope of information provision of public data so that fintechs can find more business opportunities.
In addition, it promised △Expansion of financial company ancillary business through the regulatory sandbox △Reorganization of regulations such as network separation and cloud service use △Expansion of D-testbed business operation for fintech commercialization △Preparation of the institutional foundation for payment now.
As Chairman Koh formalized the ‘differential regulation’ for big tech and fintech, there is an analysis that there is a high possibility that the policies of the financial authorities will be dualized.
Chairman Koh will hold a ‘Meeting for Activation of Financial Platform Innovation’ at Front One in Mapo, Seoul on the 15th and will meet with Big Tech officials in person.
Reporter Park Jin-woo/Jung So-ram jwp@hankyung.com
