Hana Financial Group to Significantly Expand GLN Payment Countries (Comprehensive)

Mobility Payment Service in 20 Countries Within the Year

On April 23, 2019, at the Taishin Financial Group headquarters in Taiwan, Kim Jung-tae, Chairman of Hana Financial Group (third from the left), is taking a commemorative photo after signing a business agreement with Udong-ryang, Chairman of Taishin Financial Group (fourth from the left), and others. Photo by Hana Financial

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Hana Financial Group is expanding its ‘Global Loyalty Network (GLN)’ service, which allows smartphone payments overseas. GLN is a payment platform introduced for the first time in the domestic financial sector as a flagship project of Hana Financial Chairman Kim Jung-tae’s ‘Digital and Global Convergence Strategy.’

According to Hana Financial on the 6th, GLN is currently available locally in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, and plans to launch the service in Laos within this year. They also announced preparations for mobility payment services in 20 countries including Singapore.

GLN is a system that allows users to convert Hana Financial’s joint points called ‘Hana Money’ into local foreign currency without exchanging money, enabling smartphone payments at convenience stores, department stores, duty-free shops, taxis, restaurants, and more. Simply put, it is similar to Korea’s Zero Pay ‘QR code payment.’ Payments can be made via barcode or QR code at overseas merchants displaying the GLN sticker. After over two years of development, it was launched in April last year.

The service can be used through Hana Financial’s integrated membership application, Hana Members, or partner companies’ own apps. From the domestic customer’s perspective, as long as they have Hana Money, they can freely make payments overseas without separate currency exchange. Hana Money is converted into local currency based on the exchange rate at the time of payment. There are no separate exchange fees, and the hassle of visiting a bank for currency exchange is eliminated.

Since August, a service allowing cash withdrawals via ATMs in Japan has also been introduced.

Hana Financial plans to introduce offline payment and ATM cash withdrawal services in Laos within this year. A company official stated, “Development in Laos is complete, and we are awaiting testing and approval from local financial authorities.”

Additionally, by the end of the year, they are preparing to launch mobility payment services in 20 countries including Singapore. Furthermore, Hana Financial explained that negotiations are underway to enable offline payment services next year in Singapore, Australia, India, Cambodia, China, and others.

A company representative said, “We are closely working with leading financial institutions and payment operators in each country and are progressing with development work,” adding, “Due to contractual relationships with partners, we cannot disclose the names of the companies.”

Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), business trips have been impossible, and it is reported that they are conducting business with local distribution operators, point operators, partners, and financial authorities via video conferencing.

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