"Outdated Card Laws and Systems in the Digital Age... Need for Realistic Reform"

Goddess Finance Association and VISA Joint Symposium

There have been calls to modernize card-related laws and regulations in line with recent digital payment trends and to enhance the usability of mobile wallets by card companies.

On the 6th, Park Tae-joon, Director of the Credit Finance Research Institute, emphasized this at a joint symposium held by the Credit Finance Association and Visa at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. He stated, "It is important to modernize* credit card-related laws and regulations that are not suitable for the digital era to resolve the ambiguous identity of various digital payment services, including card companies' mobile wallets." He pointed out, "Current laws are based solely on 'merchant transactions' mediated by 'tokens,' which narrows the concept of credit cards and payment targets, posing constraints on the use of digital payment technologies in the card industry. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the definition to include various digital payment methods and card payments beyond merchants."

He also emphasized the need to pay attention to the 'mobile wallet,' which is evolving into a super application (app). Director Park said, "Domestic card companies urgently need efforts to drastically enhance the usability of mobile wallets in line with recent payment trends," adding, "Efforts to sustain offline payment competitiveness, which is a strong area, such as activating contactless payments at offline merchants and supporting O2O infrastructure, as well as efforts to incorporate new payment flows like peer-to-peer rent payments and inter-company fund transfers into the card network, are necessary."

Joe Cunningham, Head of Risk Management for Visa Asia Pacific, reviewed the internal and external uncertainties in the post-COVID-19 era and introduced major payment security trends. He suggested, "As payment-related fraud crimes become increasingly sophisticated and elaborate, companies should strengthen preemptive defenses and actively respond to attacks through the 'Protect-Defend-Evolve-Tailor' strategy, while developing fraud defense capabilities and establishing customized strategies."

Following this, Ka Wee Lim, Head of Payment Fraud for Visa Asia Pacific, analyzed the purposes of different types of cyberattacks and the negative impacts of each threat on businesses and consumers. Kim Gyu-yeon, Senior Researcher at the Financial Security Institute, is scheduled to explain recent domestic incident cases under the theme of 'Analysis of Cyber Threats Targeting Credit Card Information.' The fifth presenter, Moon Jang-hyun, Executive Director of Visa Korea, introduced 'Token,' a key security technology for contactless payments.

On the 6th, at the Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, key attendees including Kim Joo-hyun, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (third from the right in the front row), Baek Hye-ryun, Chairperson of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee (fourth from the right in the front row), and Jung Wan-gyu, President of the Credit Finance Association (fifth from the right in the front row), are posing for a commemorative photo at the joint symposium hosted by the Credit Finance Association and Visa.