Eight Companies Including Shinhan Bank and Samsung Card Newly Designated as Data Specialized Institutions

More than 50% of Annual Data Integration in the Private Sector Subject to Additional Conditions for External User Institutions

Eight additional companies, including Shinhan Bank and Samsung Card, have been designated as data specialized institutions.

On the 19th, the Financial Services Commission held the 14th regular meeting and announced the additional designation of a total of eight institutions as data specialized institutions: BC Card, Samsung SDS, Samsung Card, Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, LG CNS, Kukon, and Statistics Korea (in alphabetical order).

On the 9th, officials were busy moving in the corridor of the Financial Services Commission at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where financial authorities decided to promote a plan to include mortgage loans (Judaemae) in the 'debt refinancing' infrastructure scheduled to be launched in May by the end of the year. Financial authorities explained that they aim to reduce the interest burden on mortgage loans by establishing a debt refinancing platform that allows users to compare financial sector loan interest rates at a glance and switch loans easily. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

Data specialized institutions refer to organizations that safely combine and provide pseudonymized information upon request from companies for strategy formulation and new service development, including in the financial sector, and evaluate the appropriateness of anonymized information.

Currently, four institutions are designated as data specialized institutions. Starting with six cases in 2020, a total of 231 companies have combined 287 datasets by the end of June this year. The combined data fields show that combinations between financial and non-financial sectors (54%) are somewhat higher than combinations within the financial sector (46%), indicating increasing demand for data combination across various fields, according to authorities.

In response to the growing demand for data combination and to promote activation of data combination across various fields including finance, the authorities announced the ‘Plan for Additional Designation of Data Specialized Institutions’ in January last year and designated eight institutions as data specialized institutions after preliminary designation in December last year.

However, the authorities imposed a condition on seven private data specialized institutions, excluding Statistics Korea, requiring that more than 50% of their annual data combination performance be provided to external user institutions rather than themselves, affiliates, or subsidiaries, to prevent the risk of hindering the creation of a fair and open data combination environment if data specialized institutions focus excessively on self-combination and internal data combination with related or affiliated companies.

With the additional designation of these eight institutions, the total number of data specialized institutions will increase to 12. Especially, as many private companies participate as data specialized institutions, the authorities expect significant activation of multi-field and heterogeneous data combination, including private data openness.

Specifically, financial information from banks and card companies such as account transaction information and payment information, combined with non-financial information such as delivery platform and online shopping order details, will enhance alternative credit evaluation models and lead to the launch of customized financial products, thereby improving consumer benefits. Additionally, through close consulting for small business owners based on precise commercial district and consumption pattern analysis, the business capabilities of small business owners can be enhanced and new services can be created.

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The Financial Services Commission stated, “Data combination is the foundation for building and analyzing big data, which determines the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and accelerates innovation. We will continue to expand the base of data combination.” They added, “The additional designation of data specialized institutions will be decided after fully considering market demand for data combination. Based on discussions from the Financial Data Regulatory Innovation Task Force, which has been operating since May, we plan to prepare improvement measures for key issues related to data combination, such as support plans for pseudonymized data utilization by SMEs and fintech companies and support plans for activating data combination.”

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