An Initiative to Scale up Fintech Industry

Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo (second from right) speaks during a conference on fintech companies held at the D.Camp in Seoul on Sept. 18.

Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Eun Sung-soo announced plans on Sept. 18 to set up 300 billion won (US$251.78 million) worth of private fintech investment funds by the end of this year.

At a conference on scaling-up of fintech companies held at the D.Camp in Gangnam, Seoul, Eun said, “We are planning to publish our strategy to scale up fintech companies by the end of October in order to foster global fintech unicorn firms.”

For starters, the FSC will create fintech innovation funds to expand investment in fintech startups. It is planning to raise 300 billion won (US$251.78 million) of money for four years to invest in fintech startups by matching investments from banks and fintech related agencies and private funds.

Eun said, “The virtuous circle ecosystem of venture, investment, divestment and reinvestment needs to be firmly established to revitalize the fintech industry. Patient venture funds are needed to grow fintech companies.”

Furthermore, the FSC will more aggressively run the financial regulatory sandbox to designate 100 cases of innovative finance services until March next year, the one-year anniversary of the implementation of the system. Previously, the FSC appointed 42 cases of innovative finance services through the financial regulatory sandbox.

To vitalize fintech firms, Eun said that the commission will push for a revision of the law on credit information and legislation for P2P lending.

In addition, the FSC will introduce the open banking system and support sandbox tests on blockchain. Eun will use the result of the conference to come up with the fintech scaling-up strategy. Participants in the conference said the sandbox idea needs to be protected and the government needs to ease regulations on start-ups and entry barriers. They also made a proposal to boost investment and help start-ups push into the global market.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution