Use Multiple Credit and Debit Cards from Different Card Companies in One App

Development of Simple Payment Compatibility System by Year-End
Available as Early as December
Big Tech-Led Market Changes Anticipated

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The card industry plans to develop a compatibility system for mutual access to simple payment services by the end of this year. As early as December, users will be able to register and use credit and debit cards from multiple card companies within a single card company application (app). Attention is focused on whether this will bring changes to the simple payment market, which is currently dominated by big tech companies.

According to the industry on the 19th, the Credit Finance Association recently announced a bid for the project titled "Development of Interlocking Standards and Standard API for Mutual Compatibility Registration among Card Companies." The core of the project is to develop a compatibility registration system that opens each card company's pay app to other card companies, allowing multiple companies' cards to be registered and used within a single app. The selected company through this bidding will develop the system for up to three months from the contract date. The goal is to complete the development of compatibility registration standards and the standard API within this year.

Until now, simple payments among card companies were not interoperable with other financial institutions. For example, KB Kookmin Card's KB Pay can only be used for KB Kookmin Card payments and cannot process payments with other card companies such as Hyundai Card. This contrasts with services like Naver, Kakao, and Samsung Pay, which can be used with all card companies. This system development aims to increase platform universality and prevent big tech from taking the lead in the growing simple payment market.

With the increase in non-face-to-face payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the simple payment market is rapidly growing. According to the Bank of Korea, the average daily usage amount of simple payments last year was 449.2 billion KRW, a 41.6% increase compared to the previous year. In particular, electronic financial operators such as Kakao Pay and Naver Financial accounted for the highest usage share at 45.7% last year. From the card companies' perspective, securing universality is essential to enhance competitiveness in the simple payment market.

Therefore, the key issue is how many card companies will actually participate in the simple payment open system. Although the card industry reached a principle agreement on the open system in May, only a few have decided to participate in practice. If multiple card payments are possible within a single app, competition to secure customers among card companies may intensify even before big tech. While the system development will establish standards for registering other companies' cards, actual participation remains a separate matter.

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