Line Bank gets license for Taiwan

Line, a Tokyo-headquartered mobile messenger subsidiary of South Korean tech firm Naver, said Friday that it had won a license from Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission to launch an online bank in Taiwan. Since Line received a permit to set up an online banking business in the nation in 2019, Taiwanese financial authorities had been carrying out due diligence procedures on the internet-only bank.

The mobile messenger firm said it would cooperate with the Taiwanese authorities to ensure safe and stable operations and would begin online banking services in earnest in the first half of this year.

Savings accounts, money transfers, debit card issuance, personal loans, and other products and services will be available on Line’s online-only bank platform.

“A huge amount of investment has been poured into the Asian fintech market that has large growth potential,” said Hwang In-joon, chairman of Line Bank Taiwan. “The online banking business will excel as Line’s mobile banking service Line BK has done in Thailand.”

To expand its business quickly, Line Bank is expected to use the parent company’s mobile messenger service, which currently has 21 million monthly active users in Taiwan.

The mobile messenger company said it would bring web-only banking services to other Asian nations, including Japan and Indonesia, this year.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)