"Leading the Data Industry"… Shinhan Card Moves to Be Designated as a 'Data Specialized Institution' (Comprehensive)

Addition of Data Specialized Institution Business to Business Objectives

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Shinhan Card is accelerating its efforts to take the lead in the future growth engine of the data industry. It is moving beyond simply providing card consumption data to pursuing designation as a data-specialized institution that professionally supports the integration of heterogeneous data.

According to industry sources on the 29th, Shinhan Card recently held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders and added "data-specialized institution business" to its business objectives. A Shinhan Card official explained, "We are preparing for designation as a data-specialized institution by the Financial Services Commission," adding, "This is to expand our data industry portfolio in the future."

A data-specialized institution is an organization that professionally supports data integration between companies and evaluates the appropriateness of anonymization of anonymous information. Following the revision of the Credit Information Act last year, the concepts of anonymous and pseudonymous information were introduced, and data integration is allowed through government-designated data-specialized institutions. For example, when a financial company wants to combine pseudonymous information with a telecommunications company, it sends the pseudonymous information to be combined to the data-specialized institution, which then combines the data and provides it back to both companies.

Currently, four institutions are designated as data-specialized institutions: the Financial Security Institute, the Credit Information Agency, the National Tax Service, and the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute. The financial authorities are planning to designate additional data-specialized institutions in the first quarter of next year. If Shinhan Card passes the financial authorities' review and succeeds in being additionally designated, it will be the first case in the private sector.

Shinhan Card Accelerates Discovery of New Growth Engines in Data and Digital

Shinhan Card’s move is interpreted as an effort to gain leadership in the future growth engine of the data industry. As the number one card company, it aims to contribute to revitalizing the data industry by supporting the integration of heterogeneous data between financial and non-financial sectors, beyond simply providing card consumption data.

In fact, demand for financial data integration is increasing. According to the Financial Services Commission, the number of quarterly data integrations rose from 6 cases in the fourth quarter of last year to 18 cases in the first quarter and 27 cases in the second quarter of this year.

Shinhan Card has achieved remarkable results in the data industry so far. Earlier this month, it signed a business agreement with the Statistics Korea to produce national statistics based on big data, and has carried out about 450 big data projects for over 170 public institutions and private companies. In particular, it partnered with SK Telecom and Korea Credit Bureau (KCB) to build 'Grandata,' the nation’s first private data dam that collects, integrates, analyzes, and distributes all data in the private sector. Regarding the MyData (personal credit information management) service to be implemented next month, it plans to provide asset management consulting centered on expenditure data.

This year, Shinhan Card established a task force at the headquarters level dedicated to three new businesses based on data and digital, and upgraded the organization responsible for obtaining business licenses and planning, developing, and operating platforms to a department level. At the Shinhan Card second half business strategy meeting held in July, President Lim Young-jin emphasized, "We must build a solid foundation in payment and consumer finance areas," and urged, "Let’s prepare for tomorrow by promoting new businesses centered on data and digital."