“Big Tech, Financial Groups, Data IT Companies, Retailers, and More: Open to Partnerships with Anyone”

Moon Jae-woo, Chairman of SCI Evaluation Information, "Strategic alliance plans allow management participation such as equity swaps"
Effective use of personal CB information can lead to becoming a big data leader
Pursuing governance restructuring to separate financial investment and investment development businesses

Chairman Moon Jae-woo said, "We actively welcome partners who will equip the data business as a growth engine." Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

"For SCI Pyeongga Information, a mid-sized company, to grow into the top credit information company, strategic collaboration with large fintech companies and others is urgently needed. If there is a partner who can utilize extensive credit information on individuals and companies to create a catalyst for mutual growth, we will pursue collaboration or partnerships regardless of industry or method."

Moon Jae-woo, Chairman of SCI Pyeongga Information, publicly proposed strategic partnerships with an unspecified number of companies in an interview with Asia Economy on the 24th. He said that companies from various industries such as large fintech firms, financial groups, IT companies related to data solutions, and distribution companies could become partnership candidates. He stated that partnerships are possible through all means, from business agreements for data sharing to joint product development, joint project investment, and management participation through equity swaps.

Possible through business agreements, joint product development, joint project investment, equity swaps, etc.

SCI Pyeongga Information is a comprehensive credit information (CB) company holding eight licenses simultaneously among the unit businesses stipulated by the current Credit Information Act. Based on multiple licenses, it extensively collects, investigates, and analyzes credit information on individuals and companies, conducting businesses such as credit evaluation and debt collection. Only four companies in Korea can access data provided by the Credit Information Center, a credit information concentration institution, and utilize it for related businesses. Comprehensive CBs have significant scarcity value and high entry barriers for new businesses.

Chairman Moon said, "CB licenses impose many restrictions on the scope of work and the range of information that can be collected according to the principles of information protection by authorization unit," adding, "SCI holds licenses for most work areas, allowing us to expand our business scope through various ancillary and concurrent businesses combining extensive data."

SCI Pyeongga Information is currently promoting a roadmap to leap forward as a total credit consultant in its 'Mid- to Long-Term Development Plan for Future Growth.' This includes △commercializing personal comprehensive management solutions that fuse financial and non-financial data of individuals △building a platform that provides customized services according to life cycles, including credit information, job-seeking and recruitment reputation information, health information, and asset management △supporting all-around corporate activities from credit evaluation to customer information inquiry and authentication, asset management, investment, and marketing.

However, there are growth constraints. Building financial and IT infrastructure requires securing many specialists and large-scale IT investments, which is burdensome for a mid-sized single company to handle alone. This is why SCI Pyeongga Information is desperately seeking partnership. Chairman Moon emphasized, "The personal CB market has great potential for new market expansion, including growth of the mid-interest loan market, growth of the buy-now-pay-later market, revolutionary development of MyData, and convergence of heterogeneous data," adding, "We actively welcome partners who will equip data business as a growth engine."

Expansion of Alternative Credit Evaluation, Pursuit of the 4th Credit Rating Agency

SCI Pyeongga Information plans to expand alternative credit evaluation in the era of big data.

The credit evaluation market is undergoing changes due to recent advances in big data technology. In the past, most credit information came from financial activities such as delinquency information or repayment history of financial company loans and credit card usage information. The basis of credit evaluation was mostly financial transaction information. However, recently, alternative credit evaluation that develops and utilizes new credit information such as telecommunication fee and rental fee payment records, consumption and spending patterns, health, and reputation is expanding.

The government has also revised related regulations to actively allow the use of personal information in anonymous or pseudonymous forms, not just protecting personal information, reflecting this trend. This is expected to lead to positive results by improving financial accessibility for socioeconomically vulnerable groups such as job seekers, young adults, and retirees with short financial transaction histories.

SCI Pyeongga Information is also expanding alternative credit evaluation. Representative credit evaluation products include Rental Score, MZ Score, and Reputation Inquiry Service. Rental Score is a product that provides credit evaluation information for age groups with little accumulated financial transactions by combining rental payment information and small mobile payment information. MZ Score is a credit evaluation model developed exclusively for borrowers in their 20s and 30s, scheduled for release next month. The Reputation Inquiry Service, scheduled for release in July, provides comprehensive personal reputation-related information based on employees' work ability, personality, career, salary, and delinquency history.

Chairman Moon said, "Alternative credit evaluation is a very effective way to create a new breakthrough in the personal CB market, which is dominated by the three major companies," and added, "We plan to continuously launch related products."

SCI Pyeongga Information plans to enter the 4th credit rating market through its subsidiary Seoul Credit Rating. Seoul Credit Rating currently cannot evaluate long-term bonds (corporate bonds). It can only evaluate short-term bonds such as commercial paper (CP), electronic short-term bonds, asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP), and asset-backed securities (ABS).

Seoul Credit Rating plans to seize next year as an opportunity to acquire a license for long-term bond evaluation. The financial authorities will operate an evaluation committee next year to assess the competitiveness of the credit rating market and discuss the entry of the 4th credit rating agency. Currently, three credit rating agencies each occupy about one-third of the entire market. When companies issue corporate bonds, they receive credit ratings from two or more of the three agencies, solidifying the oligopoly of the three companies.

He said, "We have secured experience and reputation in the short-term bond evaluation market over the past 20 years, and in terms of evaluation practice and IT operation capabilities, we already have an incomparable advantage in preparing for long-term bond evaluation compared to other competitors," adding, "If we become the 4th credit rating agency, we will establish our position through specialization in specific fields like the US small and medium-sized rating agency Egan-Jones Rating."

Separating Investment Development and Financial Investment to Restructure into a Holding Company System

J1 Group (Chairman Park Jung-yang), which includes SCI Pyeongga Information, is recently expanding financial businesses such as capital companies and asset management companies to leap forward as a comprehensive financial group. To this end, it is promoting a governance restructuring placing SCI Pyeongga Information, Seoul Credit Rating, J1 Capital Invest, and J1 Asset Management under the holding company J1 Holdings.

J1 Capital started as a new technology finance specialist company (Shingisa) and is expanding its business areas to corporate finance and installment finance. Its capital increased from 10 billion KRW to 20 billion KRW. It plans to expand into lease installment markets and used car installment markets. In particular, it will strengthen credit screening capabilities and discover loan demand for underserved groups through synergy effects with SCI Pyeongga Information and alternative credit evaluation.

J1 Asset Management, newly established in January this year, is expanding managed assets similarly to existing asset managers by launching private equity funds and public offering stock funds. To differentiate itself, it plans to strengthen capabilities in corporate finance consulting, including advisory services related to fundraising and investment.

Chairman Moon said, "Among J1 Group affiliates, we plan to reorganize the existing investment development business affiliates with high risk and the financial investment business requiring stability into two major pillars, and to advance each business as an investment-specialized group."

▶Profile of Chairman Moon Jae-woo

▲Born in 1955 ▲19th Administrative Examination ▲Financial Attach? (Secretary) at the Embassy of Belgium ▲Head of the Financial and Real Estate Real-Name System Implementation Team at the Ministry of Finance and Economy ▲Director of Investment Promotion Division at the Ministry of Finance and Economy ▲Director of Planning and Administration at the Financial Supervisory Commission ▲Expert Member of the 16th Presidential Transition Committee Economic Subcommittee 1 ▲Standing Commissioner of the Financial Supervisory Commission ▲Chairman of the Korea Non-Life Insurance Association ▲President of the Korea Institute of Finance ▲Chairman of SCI Pyeongga Information (current)