Kim Juhyun, President of the Goddess Association, "Card Companies Must Demonstrate Their Own 'Comprehensive Payment Settlement Business' Capabilities"

2020 Goddess Finance Seminar Held

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Kim Joo-hyun, Chairman of the Credit Finance Association, emphasized that "the card industry must demonstrate its capability to take charge of comprehensive payment services beyond MyData and MyPayment through continuous innovation."

Chairman Kim made these remarks on the 8th at the '2020 Credit Finance Seminar' held at the Bankers' Hall in Myeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, under the theme 'Digital Innovation Status and Future of the Card Industry in the Post-Corona Era.'

This seminar was organized to introduce the diverse and innovative services of card companies utilizing mobile and digital payment technologies and to discuss the future of the card industry as a fintech platform with functional scalability and connectivity suitable for the post-corona era.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Kim expressed regret, stating, "The current reality is not favorable to the card industry," and added, "Financial innovation is being discussed mainly around fintech companies, and the perception of the card companies' innovation capabilities and willingness is relatively insufficient."

However, Chairman Kim emphasized that the card industry has innovation DNA embedded from its inception. He said, "The card industry was born as an innovative financial system connecting members and merchants to provide the most convenient and secure payment services to all. Based on diverse data, it has designed and supplied optimal card products desired by the market, and recently, it has commercialized payment services using biometric information such as facial recognition, vein patterns, and fingerprints." He explained that contactless payment methods like NFC and QR codes are also provided more safely and conveniently than competitors, and that a personalized platform utilizing big data has already been established and advanced.

Chairman Kim stated, "Thanks to recent innovation efforts by the card industry, public discussions have been held on issues raised so far, such as the need for fair competition," and added, "Now is an important time for the card industry itself to demonstrate the capability and necessity to take charge of comprehensive payment services beyond MyData and MyPayment through continuous innovation."

Yoon Jong-moon, a research fellow at the Credit Finance Research Institute and a presenter at the seminar, also emphasized that to survive competition with fintech and big tech companies, card companies must reinvent themselves as fintech platforms. He stated that they need to transform into 'member payment experience-centered services' that provide differentiated convergence services for each individual. To this end, he pointed out the need for regulatory improvements to expand the scope of ancillary services that card companies can provide and to increase flexibility in changing value-added services.