KakaoBank Launches the Financial Sector's First 'Business Certificate'

Issuance Fee Free of Charge

KakaoBank announced on the 15th that it will launch the first-ever 'Business Owner Certificate' issuance service in the financial sector. The aim is to strengthen its certification business competitiveness by expanding the certificate service scope to individual business owners.

The Business Owner Certificate is issued in the name of the business owner after verifying the identity of the business representative. It is used for electronic transactions required by individual business owners, such as issuing electronic tax invoices, electronic bidding, and financial transactions.

In December last year, KakaoBank obtained electronic signature certification evaluation from the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) to launch the Business Owner Certificate. Previously, to receive a business owner certificate, documents such as the business registration certificate and application form had to be submitted in person or attached separately. KakaoBank's advantage is that the Business Owner Certificate can be applied for and issued without submitting separate documents.

During authentication, it is possible to authenticate using only the KakaoBank mobile application (app) without complicated procedures such as exporting the certificate. In particular, the certificate is encrypted and stored in a secure area within the KakaoBank app to enhance security. The issuance fee of up to 110,000 KRW per year (based on a universal certificate), which business owners bear for certificate issuance, has also been made free of charge.

KakaoBank is continuously expanding its partner institutions for electronic signature authentication services and identity verification services currently provided. The cumulative number of KakaoBank certificates issued, launched in March last year, has exceeded 16 million in just over a year since its launch.

KakaoBank plans to expand cooperation with private and public institutions so that individual business customers can perform various simple authentications and electronic signature tasks through the certificate.

A KakaoBank official said, "Just as KakaoBank led convenient mobile banking by introducing its own authentication instead of the public certificate at its launch, we will enhance mobile usage benefits for small business owners through innovation in the business owner certificate field and also lead changes in the business owner authentication system."