[2021 National Audit] Min Hyung-bae "Big Tech Security Investment Ratio to Revenue Over 8 Times Higher Than Banks"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The security investment ratio relative to sales revenue of four big tech companies?KakaoPay, Naver Financial, Toss, and NHN Payco?was found to be more than eight times higher than that of banks.

According to the "Status of Security Investment Relative to Sales Revenue by Financial Sector," disclosed on the 7th by Min Hyung-bae, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, based on data received from the Financial Supervisory Service, as of the end of July this year, the security investment ratio relative to sales revenue of the four big tech platforms?KakaoPay, Naver Financial, Toss, and NHN Payco?was 2.41%, which is 8.6 times higher than the bank average of 0.84%.

By sector, the investment ratio was 0.27% for 20 securities companies and 0.41% for 8 card companies.

The investment ratio of the four big tech companies was higher than other sectors. NHN Payco invested 980 million KRW (3.54%) in security out of sales revenue of 27.6 billion KRW. Toss invested 6 billion KRW (3.45%) out of 176.6 billion KRW in sales, KakaoPay invested 5.4 billion KRW (2.23%) out of 245.5 billion KRW, and Naver Financial invested 3 billion KRW (0.44%) out of 704.3 billion KRW.

The proportion of security personnel was also significantly higher in big tech companies. The ratio of security personnel to total employees in the four big tech companies was 3.53%, which is 5.1 times higher than banks at 0.68%.

Toss had 21 security personnel (4.9%) out of 429 total employees, Naver Financial had 14 (4.26%), KakaoPay had 16 (2.59%), and NHN Payco had 6 (2.38%). In contrast, the proportion of security personnel in securities companies was only 0.69%, and in card companies, just 1.25%. Big tech companies are aggressively investing in security because security trust is their greatest corporate asset, and they argue that excessive pre-regulations such as network separation rules should be eased after several years.

Assemblyman Min said, "Since the security capabilities of emerging fintech and big tech companies are not lacking, security policies should be entrusted to company autonomy rather than excessive and outdated pre-regulations such as network separation rules." He added, "However, a two-track strategy is needed to increase post-penalties and customer compensation amounts."

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