E-finance Booming
Much attention is being paid to financial technology (fintech), and a growing number of companies are enrolled as electronic financial business operators, which have been out of the picture for several years.
According to the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service on May 12, an additional 7 companies were registered as e-financial business operators from Jan. to early May this year. A total of 74 enterprises are providing 129 digital financial services. The number of registered companies and business all increased more than 10 percent for about 5 months.
So far, most firms have been reluctant to be enrolled as an e-financial business operator. There has been no registered IT venture firm over the past two years. In fact, after the enrollment of numerous enterprises in 2007 when registration began, and also 2008, only a few companies registered each year, as shown by 3 companies in 2009, 5 in 2010, and another 5 in 2011. Naver, Yelopay, and four other companies were included as e- financial business operators in 2012, followed by Interpay and three other firms in 2013.
In 2014, 7 enterprises registered, but none were IT companies. Six out of the seven firms that registered last year were securities companies with an intention to start online debit card payment businesses. The remaining one was the Korea Railroad Corporation. However, the number of companies registered by early May of this year is already equal to last year's figure. Moreover, an increasing number of IT firms are participating. Industry analysts are saying that if this trend continues, the number of e-financial business operators registered this year is expected to far exceed 10.
An official at a fintech company remarked, “At the end of the day, the problem is government regulations,” adding, “I think that if the government eases regulations to provide support for the fintech industry, the number of participating companies is likely to increase.”