Govt. to ease rule on recharging credit at mobile payment platforms

Published : Feb 7, 2019 - 10:17 Updated : Feb 7, 2019 - 10:17

The government plans to ease a rule on recharging credit at mobile payment platforms as it seeks to promote the financial technology sector, an official said Thursday.

Currently, people in South Korea can recharge up to 2 million won ($1,782) at a mobile payment platform, such as Kakao Pay or Naver Pay, meaning they are unable to buy goods worth more than 2 million won through the one-click payment system.

(Yonhap)

The decade-old regulation is aimed at protecting consumers in the case of bankruptcy at a mobile payment operator, but critics say it is outdated amid the strong growth of the mobile payment market.

An official at the Financial Services Commission said the FSC will map out measures to ease the regulation by the end of March.

Instead of raising the recharging limit, the FSC may require mobile payment operators to set up measures to protect consumers, according to FSC officials.

Last month, Kakao Pay said its annual transactions in 2018 surpassed 20 trillion won.

The service was officially launched in April 2017 as a separate entity from South Korea's top mobile messenger operator, Kakao Corp.

The monthly transaction value surpassed 1 trillion won last March and 3 trillion won last December, Kakao Pay said. (Yonhap)