South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country’s top financial regulator, has announced its first batch of financial services providers accepted into its financial regulatory sandbox.
Among the 18 fintech solutions selected, three utilize blockchain technology:
- Directional will be testing a stock lending platform based on blockchain technology offering stock lending and borrowing services for individual investors;
- KOSCOM will be testing a blockchain-based financial service that computerizes and updates the list of shareholders of non-listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and provides assistance for peer-to-peer (P2P) over-the-counter (OTC) trading of such stocks; and
- Kasa Korea will be testing a blockchain-based financial services platform that issues and distributes mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in a form of electronic securities.
The FSC launched[1] its fintech regulatory sandbox on April 1, 2019, enabling[2] fintech companies and financial institutions to test their new services for a maximum of two years in an environment where certain regulations are exempted.
The 18 fintech solutions that made the cut were selected among more than 100 applications. Alongside the three blockchain solutions, other fintech products accepted into the financial regulatory sandbox’s first batch include:
- Low-cost financial services delivered through mobile technology by KB Kookmin Bank;
- A credit card-based money transfer service using PayFan application by Shinhan Card;
- An online payment service using mobile text message verification by Payple;
- A P2P finance service for local residents to invest in new renewable energy businesses by Root Energy;
- A loan application service running on South Korea’s popular financial services platform Toss that provides fixed-interest rates of various loan products offered by multiple financial firms by VivaRepublica;
- A financial service that provides information of various car loan products based
