'PASS Certificate' Issuance Surpasses 10 Million Cases

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] The electronic signature service ‘PASS Certificate’ provided by the identity verification app ‘PASS’ of the three major telecom companies surpassed 10 million issuances in January this year, just nine months after its launch.

‘PASS Certificate’ is a joint project between the three telecom companies (SK, KT, LGU+) and fintech security company ATON, offering customers electronic signatures. The biggest advantage of the ‘PASS Certificate’ is that it can be easily issued through the telecom companies’ identity verification app ‘PASS’.

Customers can conveniently and securely provide user consent and electronic signatures without the need to enter personal information or use a public certificate when signing up for services, conducting financial transactions, or concluding contracts online or via mobile.

Since announcing the milestone of 5 million issuances in August last year, the ‘PASS Certificate’ has rapidly expanded, surpassing 10 million issuances within five months. The company expects the number to exceed 18 million by the end of the year if the current trend continues.

The PASS Certificate can be issued within one minute by running the telecom companies’ identity verification app PASS, agreeing to the terms, and completing either a 6-digit PIN or biometric authentication. After registration, electronic signatures can be made immediately by entering only the mobile phone number, enhancing customer convenience compared to traditional authentication methods like public certificates. Additionally, extending the certificate’s validity period to three years has eliminated the inconvenience of annual renewals, contributing to its rapid growth.

Riding this growth, ATON is expanding the use of the PASS Certificate across various industries such as public civil affairs, securities, and insurance, enabling customers to use it more conveniently than public certificates for non-face-to-face account openings, automatic transfer electronic signatures, insurance, and e-commerce services.

Starting with the introduction of the PASS Certificate at Dongyang Life Insurance, the first in the insurance industry last year, companies like Mirae Asset Daewoo and KT are also providing customer authentication services through simple electronic signatures.

Notably, Mirae Asset Daewoo recently improved its Platform V’s electronic voting/electronic proxy services, which were previously only available through public certificates, by introducing the PASS Certificate as the first private certificate in Korea, enabling easy electronic signatures. Furthermore, to prevent repudiation in online voting services used for exercising voting rights, the PASS Certificate was applied, including shareholder voting functions.

At KT, when subscribing to bundled products, identity verification and family consent for bundling can be done using the PASS Certificate. By running the PASS app on the family member’s mobile phone, agreeing to the terms, and entering a 6-digit PIN or biometric authentication, family bundling consent can be given without submitting separate identification, enhancing customer convenience.

Additionally, the PASS Certificate uses technology that stores the certificate in a secure area of the mobile phone, ensuring a high level of security equivalent to that of mobile banking services in the financial sector.

A telecom company official stated, “Although the amendment to the Electronic Signature Act is still pending and the electronic signature market outside of public certificates has not yet been activated, the PASS Certificate is receiving significant user interest due to its strong security and high convenience,” adding, “We will continuously expand partnerships to enable more people to use safe and convenient certificates across a wider range of services.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.