Open Banking Market Soars... Usage Amount Expected to Increase 175% This Year to 314 Trillion Won

Changes in the number of service transactions through the open banking environments of Korea and the United Kingdom. Source: Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] It is forecasted that the amount of open banking usage in South Korea will grow by more than 175% this year alone.

According to the 'Payment Market Insights through Statistics' published by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute on the 22nd, the amount of open banking usage is expected to reach 314.3 trillion KRW this year. This is an increase of 200.8 trillion KRW (176.9%) from last year's usage amount of 113.5 trillion KRW.

Open banking refers to a financial innovation service that allows users to view accounts, make payments, and transfer money from multiple banks through a single application (app). It began to be offered domestically from the end of 2019. Currently, policy authorities are promoting the expansion of the open banking environment to insurance companies and others.

The number of open banking transactions has also increased sharply. The number of transactions, which was 2.54 billion last year, is expected to grow by 3.89 billion (153.1%) to 6.43 billion this year.

The Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute evaluated this growth trend as world-class in terms of both absolute amount and number of transactions. Although South Korea started open banking services two years later than the UK, as of last September, the gap is only 75% of the UK's level. Considering that South Korea's economic scale is 60% of the UK's, it means South Korea has caught up rapidly. Taking the trend into account, the institute's analysis suggests that South Korea will soon surpass the UK, a financial advanced country, in absolute scale as well.

Meanwhile, discussions related to open banking are also becoming active overseas. A representative from the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute explained, "In the UK and the European Union, as guidelines for payment services have been revised, institutional grounds have been established allowing fintech companies and others to access information circulated in the financial market," adding, "By granting financial business licenses to fintech companies and others, direct participation in the payment market is being encouraged."

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