NH Bank launched the NH Fintech Reform Center at its Chungjeong-ro Head Office in Seoul last November to help the growth of the Fintech industry in Korea by providing one-stop financial services to Fintech firms.
The Fintech Financial Platform is a next-generation financial channel to support fintech companies to develop innovative fintech services.
Until now, it has been difficult for fintech businesses to combine existing financial computer systems provided by banks and new information technology. It takes more than two to three months for the administrative procedures alone to build a cooperative system with banks to make the developments possible.
Indeed, the most frequent request submitted in the fintech support center under the Financial Supervisory Service is to arrange meetings with banks. Even though fintech companies have brilliant ideas, it was hard to utilize them in finance and develop substantive fintech services.
Regarding this, NH Bank’s fintech financial platform will be the Open Financial Platform. According to the bank, any fintech business using its platform, whether it is a major company or start-up, can create innovative fintech services and apply them in finance without any complicated procedures.
Also, one of the advantages is that NH Bank has a high share in the financial settlement system, accounting for 23 percent of the total in the country.
As NH Bank pushes ahead with the Open Fintech Financial Platform, along with its Fintech Cooperation Center launched on March 16, it will be the first domestic bank that has a total support system for fintech companies.
NH Bank also opened the Smart Finance Center to cater to its online customers in such areas as marketing of financial products, smart financial consultation, wealth management service, among other online financial services.
NH Bank plans to provide “All One Bank,” a mobile bank to provide real-time and tailor-made online financial services to its customers in the second half of this year by analyzing customer demands in real time.
“The bank will be a leading bank providing online financial services by providing financial services tailor-made for customers needs continuously,” officials of the bank said.
President Lee Kyung-seob of NH Bank, who took over as the CEO on Jan. 1, is all for making every personnel at the bank a specialist in his or her own field of responsibility.
The new CEO knows a thing or two about the National Agricultural Cooperatives Federation and NH Bank, as he rose through the ranks ever since he first entered the NACF as a clerk in 1996.
One of the greatest achievements for him would be his role in the takeover of Woori Investment and Securities in 2014. He was the vice president of NH Financial Holdings at the time, and he led the merger with NH Securities, renaming it NH Investment and Securities, giving birth to the largest securities firm in Korea in terms of turnover and capital.
One of the major policies he has been pushing is the training of personnel to be experts in his or her own area of responsibility by bringing the best out of each staff member. Nonghyup Bank will introduce "watch" banking services next month, the first of its kind in the nation, which allows users to check their bank accounts and transaction records and conduct verification via smart watches.
The services will enable users to view real-time account transactions such as money transfers or credit card payments. Also, the bank said the service will soon allow users to send money with just one touch.
"We will continue to provide financial services which cater to customers' needs through fintech," a Nonghyup official said.
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