S. Korea to relax regulations on 5 innovative financial services

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) will relax regulations on five promising services proposed by local companies in efforts to spur innovation in the finance sector.

Under the government‘s program dubbed "regulatory sandbox,” the FSC suspends legal and regulatory requirements for about four years to boost the development of new business models and services in the market.

Among the services is Shinhan Bank's mobile-based personal authentication system where consumers can pre-register photos of their IDs or driver’s license to open new accounts at bank branches.

The list also includes a joint service that offers a 10,000 won gift certificate every month to Carrot General’s car insurance product subscribers who use SK Telecom operator’s T Map navigation platform.

Another is Hanwha Life Insurance’s service of offering vouchers, instead of insurance money, to be used at online shopping platforms.

There's also Pay Here's mobile application to help small merchants win memberships from credit card companies, and A&B Korea's mobile app to process credit card transactions by using radiofrequency.

The FSC has selected a total of 120 new financial services to apply relaxed regulations since the regulatory sandbox kicked off last year.