Following KT, KakaoPay Also... Woori Financial Expands Digital Alliance Territory

Kakao Pay and Digital Joint Development Business Agreement
Last Month, KT Initiated Strategic Financial and ICT Convergence

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Woori Financial Group is accelerating digital and data collaboration with big tech (large information and communication companies) and information and communication technology (ICT) companies. This is a strategic move to proactively respond to the changing financial environment and to stably enter the newly established platform-based market in the future.

According to the financial sector on the 12th, Woori Bank signed a "Business Agreement for Joint Development and Cooperation of Digital Financial Services" with Kakao Pay on the 10th. Accordingly, the two companies plan to cooperate to discover innovative projects such as ▲non-face-to-face loan applications through open application programming interface (Open API) linkage ▲joint development of customer-tailored digital financial products and services.

Kwon Kwang-seok, CEO of Woori Bank (fourth from the left), Ryu Young-jun, CEO of Kakao Pay (third from the left), and other officials from Woori Bank and Kakao Pay are posing for a commemorative photo after signing a "Business Agreement for Digital Finance Innovation" on the 10th via an online face-to-face (Ontact) method. (Photo by Woori Bank)

As their first joint project, Kakao Pay will provide Woori Bank's non-face-to-face loan products through the "My Loan Limit" service offered on the KakaoTalk and Kakao Pay mobile applications. Through this, customers can check the limit and interest rate of Woori Bank's non-face-to-face loan products and then apply for a loan by accessing Woori WON Banking, Woori Bank's mobile banking service.

The two companies also plan to expand their cooperation through digital joint marketing by ▲entrusting related tasks for non-face-to-face loan recruitment services ▲developing and expanding collaboration on financial and platform convergence services ▲jointly attracting new customers.

Earlier last month, Woori Financial signed a strategic business agreement with KT for financial and ICT convergence. Based on this agreement, the two companies plan to particularly strengthen cooperation in the MyData business.

Since MyData business participants are expected to provide similar services by industry, they plan to develop differentiated services combining financial and telecommunications data and seek cooperation methods such as joint ventures (JV) to maximize synergy. They are also promoting measures to significantly simplify authentication for non-face-to-face financial transactions through the introduction of a joint authentication system.

The two companies announced that they will promote joint projects that greatly improve customer convenience by cross-utilizing identity verification in non-face-to-face channels and expand the customer base through joint marketing using both companies' channels. They also decided to promote joint marketing between BC Card, a subsidiary of KT, and Woori Financial affiliates (Woori Bank and Woori Card) as a joint project to respond to the MyPayment (payment instruction transmission business) system to be introduced next year.

In May, Woori Financial launched the "Digital Innovation Committee," chaired by Chairman Sohn Tae-seung, and is focusing its capabilities on digital innovation by conducting online training on "DT (Digital Transformation) and IT knowledge content" for all employees of the group companies.