Woori Financial-KT, Finance and ICT Convergence MOU... "Strengthening Digital Alliance"

On the 19th, Woori Financial Group signed a business agreement with KT at the Woori Bank headquarters located in Jung-gu, Seoul. Sohn Tae-seung (third from the left), Chairman of Woori Financial Group, Koo Hyun-mo (second from the left), CEO of KT, Kwon Kwang-seok (first from the left), President of Woori Bank, and Lee Dong-myeon, CEO of BC Card, are posing for a commemorative photo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Woori Financial Group signed a strategic business agreement (MOU) with KT on the 19th to promote the convergence of finance and information and communication technology (ICT).

The signing ceremony held at the Woori Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul was attended by Sohn Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group, and Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT. Key CEOs from both companies' major affiliates, including Kwon Kwang-seok, President of Woori Bank, and Lee Dong-myeon, President of BC Card, also participated, agreeing to establish a collaborative system across various fields ranging from joint marketing to the promotion of digital new businesses.

This business agreement is a follow-up measure to the cooperation promise for finance-ICT convergence jointly proposed by Chairman Sohn and CEO Koo in June. Sharing the recognition that "the future of the group depends on digital innovation," they proceeded with this agreement.

Based on this agreement, the two companies plan to particularly strengthen cooperation in the MyData business. Since MyData business participants are expected to provide similar services by industry, they plan to develop differentiated services combining financial and telecommunications data and seek cooperation methods such as joint ventures (JV) to maximize synergy.

They will also promote measures to significantly simplify authentication for non-face-to-face financial transactions through the introduction of a joint authentication system. The two companies stated that they will greatly improve customer convenience by cross-utilizing identity verification in non-face-to-face channels and will expand their customer base through joint marketing using both companies' channels.

Additionally, as a joint business responding to the MyPayment (payment instruction transmission business) system to be introduced next year, KT’s subsidiary BC Card and Woori Financial affiliates (Woori Bank and Woori Card) will promote joint marketing. They plan to build Woori Financial’s payment platform using BC Card’s merchant network and pursue concrete cooperation such as data sharing and joint marketing between Woori Card and BC Card in the future.

A Woori Financial Group official described this business agreement as "an unprecedented level that includes the scope of work for concrete outcome creation, unlike typical cooperation declarations, such as jointly establishing educational programs to nurture digital experts in AI and big data."

The two companies plan to match related departments for each task in the future, form a consultative body covering major business sectors, and have each affiliate’s representative raise execution capabilities through rapid decision-making at the steering committee.

A Woori Financial Group official said, "As we have had a long-standing good relationship with KT for mutual growth, we will further solidify our digital alliance. We will secure leadership in digital innovation in competition with big tech companies and lay the foundation to lead the Korean version of the Digital New Deal."

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