Woori Bank Wins 'Best Open Banking/API Initiative' Award

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Woori Bank announced on the 1st that it was selected as the Best Institution in Asia in the 'Best Open Banking/API Initiative' category at the 'International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2020' organized by the global financial magazine The Asian Banker.

The Asian Banker, established in 1996, is a global financial magazine headquartered in Singapore. It selects the best banks annually in the financial and digital sectors through a rigorous evaluation process conducted by analysts and an international judging panel.

Globally, 'open banking' refers not only to bank account inquiry and transfer services but is generally used to describe the methods or systems through which fintech companies provide financial products and services via open APIs. The Asian Banker highly evaluated Woori Bank for its contributions to activating open banking domestically and internationally through ▲ accelerating financial innovation by creating a fintech developer-friendly environment ▲ providing financial products and services through linkage with fintech platforms ▲ establishing partnerships with overseas fintech companies.

Woori Bank established an open API platform for developers in June last year and provides APIs for loans, foreign exchange applications, transfers, etc. It also offers development support materials through the global development platform GitHub. The bank was the first among commercial banks to participate in loan product comparison and recommendation services such as Bank Salad, designated as an innovative financial service by the Financial Services Commission. Additionally, it is jointly developing mobile real-time overseas remittance services with Cambodian fintech company Wing and is awaiting approval from local authorities.