Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has prioritised FinTech innovation for 2019 after the country has established the ‘groundwork’ with regulatory, budgetary and institutional support.
The country’s financial regulatory sandbox is set to launch in April and will provide companies a safe place to test solutions without regulations overbearing them. Applications for the sandbox will begin at the end of January. In support of the sandbox, the FSC is deploying KRW 4bn ($3.5m).
In addition to this, the FSC is looking to remove financial uncertainty which restricts financial companies from investing into FinTechs. Financial companies are banned from investing into non-financial companies, unless they are closely related to financial services.
Financial companies can invest in FinTech due to the support of the FSC’s legal interpretation which puts FinTechs as a category of companies closely related to financial services.
In order to boost investments into FinTech, the FSC is amending regulations to clarify the scope of business which financial companies are permitted to invest. The FSC is also hoping to boost investments by venture capital and PEFs in FinTech, it claims.
Finally, the FSC is looking to overhaul formal and informal regulations which hinder FinTech innovation. There are over 200 regulations currently being reviewed and results will be revealed during the first quarter of 2019.
Weekly meetings are being held with FinTechs in order to receive suggestions and opinions.
FSC Chairman Choi JongKu said, “The FSC will spare no effort to support fintech companies to come with globally competitive services and spread fintech innovation across the financial sector.”
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