With the Spread of Untact Culture... Card Companies Increasing Digital Services

Shinhan Card Launches Digital Platform Membership 'D-Club'
Introducing Digital ARS, Starbucks Siren Order, and More

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] As the 'untact (contactless)' consumption culture rapidly spreads due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), credit card companies are also expanding their contactless services. The untact paradigm seems to be accelerating the digital transformation of credit card companies.

According to the card industry on the 7th, Shinhan Card launched 'D-Club,' the industry's first 100% digital platform membership program, on the same day. D-Club is a service that digitally implements the entire Shinhan Card usage experience?including card application, issuance, usage, and consultation?through Shinhan Pay Fan without a plastic card. Shinhan Card plans to experimentally operate the service until the end of this year by recruiting 10,000 customers who have never used Shinhan Card on a first-come, first-served basis, targeting the millennial generation known as digital natives.

Digital transformation is a common issue among credit card companies. Recently, they also introduced a contactless consultation service called 'Digital ARS.' Digital ARS automatically connects customers to the mobile homepage when they call the customer center, allowing consumers to handle tasks themselves by viewing the screen without guidance from a consultant. Lotte Card and Shinhan Card launched the service in February and March of this year, respectively.

A Starbucks Order service available on card company platforms has also been launched. Starbucks Order is a contactless ordering service, and Samsung Card was the first in the industry to introduce the Starbucks Order service on the Samsung Card+ App Card application. Shinhan Card recently added the Starbucks Order service to Shinhan Pay Fan as well.

Some companies have even converted agency tasks previously handled at branches into digital formats. Since the 4th, Hana Card has shifted the Hana Card agency tasks handled at Hana Bank branches to be processed through its own website and customer center. This digitalization covers most tasks except card issuance applications, such as loss reporting, points, and limit changes. The plan is to strengthen competitiveness through digital acceleration by transitioning to contactless operations.

In fact, credit card issuance through contactless channels is steadily increasing. According to seven major credit card companies (Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, and Hana Card), as of the end of last year, the proportion of new credit cards issued through online channels approached 30%. The share of new online credit card issuance, which was only 6.3% in 2015, jumped nearly fourfold to 26.6% last year. Hyundai Card, which has led digital transformation, is known to have a contactless channel issuance rate approaching 90%. KB Kookmin Card began building a 'contactless card issuance automatic screening process' in February this year.

An industry official said, "As the untact consumption culture spreads due to COVID-19, various contactless services are being introduced," adding, "The untact culture is also accelerating the digital transformation of each credit card company."