[Reporter’s Notebook] Intensifying Survival Competition in the Financial Sector, Fair Play Must Be Ensured

Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Card, and other Samsung financial affiliates are preparing an integrated application (app) that allows users to access their services all at once.

Samsung's integrated app is expected to provide comprehensive financial services such as open banking and insurance premium payments, as well as information services related to automobiles and real estate. Samsung plans to launch the integrated app in the market within a month or two at the earliest.

Samsung's integrated app is similar to the MyData (personal credit information management) services offered by existing financial companies and fintech (finance + technology) firms. MyData is a service that gathers and manages one's scattered information from multiple financial institutions in one place.

However, Samsung Life Insurance recently received disciplinary action from financial authorities for refusing insurance payouts to some customers, and as a result, it is prohibited from offering the new MyData service for one year.

Accordingly, Samsung's integrated app is expected to have the drawback of being unable to retrieve personal information from other financial companies. Compared to other companies' MyData services, it is inherently limited from the outset.

Despite financial authorities' regulations, Samsung is putting significant effort into launching the integrated app because competition in the financial sector is becoming increasingly fierce.

In particular, as major big tech companies such as Naver, Kakao, and Toss enter the financial industry, financial companies are being pushed into intense competition.

The political sphere and government have paved the way for big tech companies to enter the financial sector more easily through special laws such as the Internet-only Bank Act, but existing financial companies are still blocked from entering non-financial sectors. This has been criticized as a form of reverse discrimination.

There have been ongoing calls for big tech companies to be subject to regulations equivalent to those imposed on financial companies. The Korea Insurance Research Institute pointed out that considering the growth of big tech, it is time to consider introducing specialized regulations.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) also argued that stronger capital regulations should be imposed when big tech and fintech companies enter the banking industry.

Starting with Samsung, the entry of non-bank sectors into the fintech market is expected to become more active. It is time for the government and political circles to give more thought to regulations so that multiple companies can compete under a fair system.