Are Women More Sensitive to COVID-19? ... Financial Data Exchange Gathering All Kinds of Data

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Which gender is more sensitive to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), men or women? Data analyzed by an internal research team at a major commercial bank, Bank A, provides a small hint to this question. Bank A analyzed customer visit trends to its branches since the full-scale spread of COVID-19 in February and found that the visit rate of female customers to branches dropped significantly more compared to male customers.

An official from the bank explained, "We cannot generalize the difference in infectious disease sensitivity between men and women based solely on branch visit trends of a specific bank, but since bank branches inherently involve close contact between people, we can get some insight into that difference."

The financial data exchange, which processes and trades customers' financial information, is showing a smooth start. Not only have more member companies joined, including commercial banks, but data transactions are also actively taking place.

According to the Financial Security Institute and related industries on the 26th, as of today, the Financial Data Exchange, launched on the 11th of last month, has registered 349 data sets from financial companies such as banks and card companies, major telecommunications firms, and credit information companies. The number of participating companies has increased from 46 at the ten-day mark after launch to 68. Among these, a cumulative total of 145 data transactions have occurred. Eleven paid products have been traded, with the transaction volume reaching 290 million KRW.

The Financial Data Exchange is an intermediary system where suppliers and demanders can match and trade data such as de-identified information and corporate information. It was launched in line with the government's and financial authorities' policy to 'revitalize the data economy.' Recently, interesting data reflecting changes in consumer online consumption and lifestyle patterns after the spread of COVID-19, securities firm channel usage rates, and consumption trend changes due to fine dust variations have been continuously registered.

For example, according to card payment data analyzed by Card Company B on customers using delivery applications (apps), in a certain alley commercial district in Seoul, known for its high population of young office workers, the proportion of card payments through delivery apps was overwhelmingly higher than on-site payments at business locations. A representative from Card Company B explained, "Such data can be usefully employed as reference material for marketing and commercial district management by companies or local governments."

Over the past year, numerous financial activity-related data directly referenced for designing various insurance products, corporate credit information, and investment decisions have also been uploaded.

Recently, real estate-related statistical data such as the rate of change in jeonse (long-term lease) and sales prices of apartments nationwide have been continuously registered. It is known that Seoul City is discussing participating in the Financial Data Exchange with public administrative data.

An official from the financial authorities forecasted, "With the implementation of the Data 3 Act in August and the activation of data integration across different industries, both the quantity and quality of traded data will significantly improve."

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