Financial Services Commission: "131 Applications for Innovative Financial Services Designation in Q2"

Savings Banks Allowed P2P Linked Investments
Using SaaS Internal Network, etc.
Decision Made After Up to 120 Days Review

The Financial Services Commission announced on the 3rd that a total of 131 applications were received during the regular application period for the designation of innovative financial services for the second quarter of this year, held from the 17th to the 28th of last month. The types of applicant companies were 96 financial companies (73.3%), 31 fintech companies (23.6%), 3 big tech companies (2.3%), and 1 other (IT company) (0.8%), showing that the combined application share of financial and fintech companies exceeded 95%.

In particular, financial companies mainly applied for services related to policy tasks announced by financial authorities to be pilot-operated through a sandbox prior to regulatory improvements, such as the use of cloud-based software (SaaS) internal networks and allowing savings banks to invest in online investment-linked finance (P2P).

Meanwhile, the types of financial services applied for were most numerous in the capital market sector (48 cases, 36.7%), followed by electronic finance and security (35 cases, 26.7%), and loans (33 cases, 25.2%). Other applications included banking (6 cases, 4.6%), data (3 cases, 2.3%), and insurance, P2P, and specialized credit sectors (2 cases each, 1.5% each).

The Financial Services Commission plans to decide on the designation of innovative financial services after the Innovative Finance Review Committee reviews the applications within the statutory review period (up to 120 days). The regular application period will be operated for two weeks at the end of each quarter, and the next regular application schedule will be announced in August. Companies considering applying for designation of innovative financial services but facing difficulties with legal review or application preparation can apply for consulting support from the Korea Fintech Support Center before applying to receive assistance.