Financial Services Commission to Open Personal Business Owner Information Held by Financial Public Institutions from the 9th

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Starting from the 9th, personal business owner information held by financial public institutions will be opened for the first time. This includes financial information, debt information, deposit and loan information, and business suspension/closure information of personal business owners.

On the 8th, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that personal business owner information in the financial sector held by financial public institutions under the FSC will be opened from the 9th.

The FSC is leading the initiative to open personal business owner information in the financial sector, with five affiliated financial public institutions?Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Development Bank, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Housing Finance Corporation, and Korea Inclusive Finance Agency?providing the personal business owner information. The Financial Security Institute (a data-specialized institution) is responsible for data integration and anonymization.

Personal business owner information will be opened in the form of four open APIs (8 functions, 22 items) covering ▲Basic Information ▲Financial Information ▲Banking Information ▲Evaluation Information. Basic Information allows inquiry into the overview and business suspension/closure status of personal business owners. Key components include the representative’s gender and age group, establishment year, region, industry, number of employees, and business suspension/closure status. Financial Information allows inquiry into the financial data, sales information, and debt information of personal business owners, with key components such as sales, operating profit, and debt. Banking Information allows inquiry into deposit and loan information and guarantee balance information of personal business owners, with key components including demand deposit amount, loan amount, and guarantee balance. Evaluation Information allows inquiry into evaluation data that includes not only financial transactions but also non-financial factors of personal business owners, with key components such as region, industry, and evaluation information.

The FSC and participating institutions have thoroughly anonymized the data to prevent identification of data subjects before opening the personal business owner information in the financial sector, fundamentally blocking privacy concerns. Accordingly, major identifying information such as the personal business owner’s name, business name, and business registration number are excluded from the open data items. Additionally, through the data-specialized institution, age, number of employees, industry information, and address are categorized to prevent identification. For example, if the original information of a personal business owner A is age 41, 15 employees, and Hyoja-dong, Jung-gu, the opened information will be categorized as 40s, 10?20 employees, and Jung-gu. Furthermore, privacy protection models have been applied using statistical techniques to prevent identification not only directly but also through inference.

Even with anonymization, to enhance data usability, the open data is organized at the individual business owner level. One open data record corresponds to one personal business owner and consists of items such as gender, age group, region, industry, and sales amount. Therefore, users can analyze specific industries in the 40s age group in Jongno-gu.

An FSC official stated, "The personal business owner information being opened this time is expected to be used by general companies and financial institutions for data processing and analysis, consulting, and data-based information provision," adding, "It is expected that financial services for small-scale self-employed and other personal business owners will expand through the development of alternative credit evaluation models."

Next year, among affiliated financial-related institutions, the Insurance Development Institute will participate in opening financial public data, and additional public data such as flood-damaged vehicle authenticity and insurance subscription information will be opened.

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