Toss Securities promotes Gyubin Kim to CEO
Kim succeeds Seungyeon Kim, who has served as CEO of Toss Securities since April last year.
South Korea
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: ZayZoon, Koin, FacePhi, Belong and more
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of fintech companies across the globe.
Viva Republica’s Toss Bank announces Rhee Eun-mi as first female CEO
Rhee Eun-mi joins from DGB Daegu Bank, where she has been serving as CFO and managing director.
South Korea’s FSC announces two new initiatives to expand open banking
The two new initiatives will bring changes to how open banking data is used in the country.
South Korea’s Finda bags $37m Series C funding
JB Financial Group took part in the round as a strategic investor, acquiring a 15% stake in the company.
South Korea sets out measures to promote competition in banking sector
Financial authorities will work to bring about fair competition by allowing more players to enter the market.
Ant Group enables Alipay+ mobile wallet integrations in Thailand
The mobile wallets include Alipay HK (Hong Kong SAR), Kakao Pay (South Korea), and Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia).
South Korea’s Kakao Pay eyes majority stake in Siebert
Kakao Pay has acquired a 19.9% stake in the US firm and plans to buy an additional 31.1%.
PPRO extends payments infrastructure to South Korea
This integration “opens up a gateway” for PPRO’s global partners to reach South Korean consumers, PPRO says.
Crypto exchange Binance snaps up majority stake in South Korea’s Gopax
The investment is part of Binance’s ‘Industry Recovery Initiative’ (IRI), launched in 2022.
South Korean tech firm behind super-app Toss raises $405m Series G funding
Tonic Private Equity led the Series G round along with a number of existing investors.
Private market exchange ADDX bags $20m in expanded pre-Series B
The latest equity round brings total funds raised by ADDX since 2017 to around $140 million.
Korea Credit Data raises $24.7m in Series D extension
Since it was founded in 2016, the firm has raised more than $110 million in total funding.
Crypto.com gains new licences in South Korea via two acquisitions
The firm has acquired payment service provider PnLink and virtual asset service provider OK-BIT.
AI-focused fintech Qraft Technologies secures $146m SoftBank investment
Qraft’s US CEO says investment management is “ripe for disruption” thanks to AI.
Shinhan Bank readies stablecoin remittance PoC on Hedera network
This is the latest in a number of distributed ledger innovations by the South Korean bank.
Citi to take $1.5bn charge shuttering South Korean retail banking business
The charge related to the closure will affect the bank’s operations through the rest of 2021 and 2022.
Standard Chartered Bank Korea adopts OpenLegacy API technology
SCB Korea is looking to overhaul its technology as part of its digital transformation.
Kakao Pay files for IPO with $1.4bn target
The firm is scheduled to debut on KOSPI on 12 August.
Viva Republica lands $410m as launch of new digital bank looms
Toss has now accrued around $844 million in funding across ten separate rounds.
Hana Financial Group completes cloud migration with Oracle
South Korean firm shifts 15 million customer accounts off premises.
South Korean payments provider Danal to accept crypto
The payments provider will accept digital currencies via ICON’s blockchain ecosystem.
Viva Republica raises $173m for “one-stop” financial app
The tech company plans to diversify financial market in South Korea
Standard Chartered Korea brings banking to consumers’ keyboards
“Banks must weave their services into customers’ digital lives”.
KB Kookmin continues crypto custody development with new partners
The South Korean bank expects artwork and real estate to be traced via blockchain in future.
South Korea reports 20m subscriptions to open banking service
Figure represents a quadrupling of registrations since an October 2019 pilot.
South Korea’s fintech sandbox lands $110m and creates 380 jobs
Fintechs can be exempt of regulations for up to four years.
Trustonic lands security deal with South Korea’s biggest bank
“KB Bank are taking a more open market approach,” says Trustonic.
South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank to launch cryptocurrency custody service
The bank filed a trademark application at the end of January.
Google equips its cloud offering with two acquisitions
The Big Tech is gearing up to take on Amazon and Microsoft’s rival cloud products.
Korean banks have growing concerns over Starbucks prepaid card
Starbucks said its prepaid cards had $1.56 billion in stored value at the end of 2019.
Capital markets fintech iStox raises $5m in South Korea
iStox claims to offer one-stop issuance, custody and trading of digitised securities.
South Korea to launch open banking system this month
5.51 million open banking accounts have now been registered.
South Korean regulator plans Open Banking experiment
The scheme will involve a “comprehensive assessment” for Open Banking.
Natwest, Nationwide and RBS pull banking apps from Google Play for Samsung S10 users
The S10’s fingerprint feature glitch means it can be unlocked by anyone.
Viva Republica cosies up to Standard Chartered in plan to form Korean challenger
A successful licence bid would create the third internet bank in the country.
Samsung gears up digital wallet with debit card and cross-border payments
‘Samsung Pay Cash’ and ‘Money Transfer’ are just the beginning.
South Korea and Indonesia fintechs collaborate on accelerator lab
SFG and CoHive has officially launched the Shinhan Future’s Lab Indonesia.
SoftBank invests €900m in Wirecard for APAC push
Wirecard is struggling amidst fraud investigations.
Human Plus releases crypto payment ecosystem HupayX
Standing up to big players like Mastercard and Visa.
