Financial Services Commission Allows Kookmin Bank's Budget Phone Service 'Liiv M' for 2 More Years

3 New Innovative Financial Services Designated... 4 Additional Condition Changes

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The Financial Services Commission has decided to extend the designation period of KB Kookmin Bank's MVNO service 'Liiv M' as an innovative financial service by two years.

The FSC held a regular meeting on the day and announced the designation of three new innovative financial services. The three newly designated innovative financial services are ▲ 'Blockchain-based real estate revenue securities trading platform' applied by Lucent Block and six trust companies ▲ 'Digital real-name verification service for in-branch bank customers' requested by Busan Bank ▲ 'Non-face-to-face account opening service using facial recognition technology' proposed by Hana Bank.

Additionally, to facilitate smooth testing of previously designated innovative financial services, the FSC decided on changes to additional conditions for four cases, changes to designation details and extension of the designation period for one case, and extension of the designation period for ten cases.

In particular, Liiv M of Kookmin Bank was re-designated. Kookmin Bank was designated as an innovative financial service for its MVNO service on April 17, 2019, but as the designation period is set to expire on the 16th, it requested an extension.

The FSC held the Innovative Financial Services Review Committee meetings on the 8th and the morning of the day to review the matter, and deliberated on the agenda at the regular meeting. As a result, recognizing the need for additional time for system advancement of financial communication linkage and the launch of bundled financial products, the designation period was extended by two years until April 16, 2023.

However, the additional conditions were specified and supplemented. First, the existing additional conditions related to preventing excessive performance competition were specified.

Also, to protect financial consumers currently using the MVNO service and to provide stable service without labor-management disputes, the innovative financial service will be provided through non-face-to-face channels during the extension period, but for digitally vulnerable groups, face-to-face services may be provided through mutual consultation between labor and management.

This consideration was made given that 98% of KB Kookmin Bank MVNO subscriptions are made through non-face-to-face channels, while face-to-face subscriptions account for only about 2%.

Furthermore, to smoothly promote future digital innovation, the spirit of active cooperation between labor and management was included in the additional conditions.