Son Byung-du "Financial platforms, tilted playing field... Same service, same regulation principle"

2nd 'Digital Finance Council'

Son Byung-du, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, is presiding over the Financial Risk Response Team meeting of the Economic Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the Bankers' Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 11th. The meeting reviewed the support performance for automobile parts suppliers and the financial support status for small and medium-sized enterprises. / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] A system will be established requiring platform companies like Naver and Kakao, which provide financial services, to provide clear information related to manufacturing, sales, and advertising to financial companies and financial users. Specific measures will also be discussed regarding the 'tilted playing field' issue between platform companies and existing financial institutions.

At the 2nd 'Digital Finance Council' held on the 24th, chaired by Sohn Byung-doo, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, discussions were held on the entry of domestic and foreign platforms into the financial sector, their impact on market order, and improvements to financial sector certification and identity verification systems.

Vice Chairman Sohn stated, "Globally, financial services provided through platforms are rapidly expanding, and recently in Korea, services such as financial product comparison and sales through large platforms are also expanding. While this allows consumers to easily compare and select various financial products, providing positive effects with greater benefits for financial consumers, there is also concern that if financial companies become dependent on platforms, long-term innovation momentum may decline."

He added that concrete discussions will be held on measures to secure 'transparency,' including institutional devices, and to ensure 'fairness' of platform algorithms and clear 'accountability' in the manufacturing and sales process according to market conditions.

Specifically, he mentioned ▲the obligation to notify the nature of platform business activities such as brokerage, advertising, and recommendation ▲the obligation to prevent misunderstandings about financial products and services provided through linkage and partnerships ▲the obligation to explain the platform's automated decision-making upon user request.

Vice Chairman Sohn also said, "Discussions on data sharing among market participants will be conducted as quickly as possible," emphasizing, "We will approach this from the perspective of consumer information sovereignty, actively reflect contributions to industry revitalization when selecting MyData operators, and establish institutional measures to strengthen personal information protection based on these three fundamental principles."

In particular, Vice Chairman Sohn stated that regarding the 'tilted playing field' issue between platform companies and existing financial institutions, regulations will be rationally improved in a way that promotes innovation in each sector based on the principle of 'same service, same regulation.'

The council also included improvements to certification and identity verification systems in the financial sector on the agenda. Vice Chairman Sohn explained, "For transactions with low risk such as simple information inquiries and withdrawals, convenient identity verification methods issued after easy verification will be used considering user convenience. For transactions with high risk and importance such as loans and large transfers, high-level identity verification and authentication methods and procedures with stability will be prepared."

The financial authorities plan to legislate the 'Non-face-to-face Real-name Verification Guidelines' to prevent damages such as identity theft account openings and financial fraud through forged IDs and burner phones.

The council was formed as a public-private joint effort to seek common development plans for big tech, fintech, and the financial industry. From this meeting, Ryu Jun-woo, CEO of Bomap, and Lee In-seok, Executive Director of Samjeong KPMG, also newly joined.

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