BC Card captured the 2016 Dasan Financial Award in the Credit Finance Sector at a New Year’s Party for the financial community held on Jan. 3 at Lotte Hotel in down town Seoul. It was recognized for being the first credit card firm in Korea to set up operations abroad.
The company expanded to Jakarta, Indonesia, last November in a tieup with the state-owned Mandari Bank. BC Card formed a joint venture called MIT (Mitra Transacsi Indonesia), a credit card processing firm. The joint venture will use credit card fund settlement technology developed in Korea through a licensing agreement signed with BC Card in Korea.
BC Card also plans to launch an operation in Laos this year, following the successful launch of MTI. The company will aim to sign an MOU with a local financial firm to help develop the payment settlement industry in Laos.
BC Card has had the attention of the credit card industry in Korea by developing mobile payment settlement card technology and importing diverse Fintech products. The mobile card technology that the company developed was adopted as the KS standard technology last June.
The company has been working on the development of thumb and facial-activated Fintech for financial deals. The company came up with voice-activated technology to confirm financial activities last year.
BC Card has released the BC Global Card, a local proprietary card brand with international acceptance, and began issuing it through client banks on April 5th, 2016.
BC Global Card is the first local proprietary brand in South Korea, allowing cardholders to use their credit cards abroad without paying service fees to international network brands such as Visa or MasterCard.
This brand attracts customers with two unique plans: It does not charge the cardholder with a 1 percent International Service Assessment Fee (ISA fee) for overseas card use, and secondly, the card requires an annual fee equivalent to that of domestic use-only cards.
Global Card is currently available in Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), SC First Bank, Daegu Bank, Busan Bank, and Kyongnam Bank. Other client banks, including Woori Bank, will start issuing it in mid-April. Customers can apply for the BC Global Card by requesting BC Global on an existing card product.
The cardholder can enjoy BC Global Card’s specialized benefits, as well as existing value-added services applied to the original card product. Domestic value-added services provided by BC Global Card include a maximum 20 percent discount in top language institutes, restaurants, fitness centers, and spas; 5 percent discount in international hotel and flight reservations using BC Tour travel agency.
International value-added services include; 5 percent discount of ETS TOEFL registration fees (available in www.ets.org, max. 10,000 won a month); 5 percent discount in top international online shopping malls such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Victoria’s Secret, and American Eagle (for online purchase, max. 10,000 won a month per merchant); discounts in department stores such as 10 percent in Macy’s; 15 percent in Bloomingdale’s; a free one-day membership in Sam’s Club; 5 percent admission fee discount in the theme park Six Flags; $15 (weekend) discount in Hertz Rent-A-Car.
The leading officials of BC Card led by President Suh Joon-hee and Mandari Bank in Indonesia pose for a photo session at the Mitra Transaesi Indonesia, their joint venture firm in Indonesia in November, last year. (Photos: BC Card)
