South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has announced that they will use Blockchain technologies for future fintech innovation by focusing on supporting new technologies as opposed to regulating them, local news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily reports today, March 21.
Choi Jong-ku, the chairman of the FSC, said in relation to the impetus for the FSC announcement that “the players in the financial service market are becoming more diverse, with new companies entering, and the competition in the financial market is becoming fiercer. As a result, existing financial companies are also making attempts with fintech to raise their services.”
Jong-ku added that he sees the advantages for young people in a more contemporary fintech market:
“Fintech is an area that requires new technologies, and it will solve the youth job problem by increasing job positions for young people.”
The FSC hopes that the reported “regulatory rollbacks” will allow businesses to create more jobs and lower service charges, giving examples of fintech business improvements like offering customers the opportunity to buy investments over video chat and using crowdfunding for small businesses.
According to Korea JoongAng Daily, the FSC will also approve an app-to-app payment system which allows customers to buy products without using credit card companies or networks, although banks will still add charges for the transactions. Korea JoongAng Daily lists fintech company Toss and online banks K Bank and Kakao as already having begun testing app-to-app payment technologies.
South Korea, believed to be one of the world’s largest crypto markets, has began regulating cryptocurrency in the country more strongly. In January 2018, the government banned anonymous trading on crypto exchanges. The government responded to a public anti-crypto regulation petition in mid-February, underlining that there is no planned crypto ban in the country but that regulations are in place to prevent “any illegal acts or uncertainties.”