Inaugural Korea Fintech Week kicks off

The inaugural Korea Fintech Week event kicked off in Seoul Thursday, bringing together more than 50 local startups and 2,500 attendees to share business ideas and clinch new investment opportunities.

The three-day event taking place at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul through Saturday is organized by the Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service and Fintech Center Korea.

The CEOs of fintech operators, including mobile payment platform Kakao Pay, personal finance management app Banksalad and mobile money transfer and payment platform Toss, presented their business models and plans. 

There were a series of seminars to provide assistance to fintech startups seeking to expand overseas as well. Presenters included financial regulators from Vietnam, Australia and Indonesia as well as Shinhan Financial Group’s fintech lab unit. 

During the seminar, Deloitte Startup Advisory Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the FSS agreeing to support fintech startups utilizing its global network.

Fintech startups had a chance to hold investor meetings with various venture capital, asset management and financial companies as well.

The participating startups are engaged in business areas such as artificial intelligence-based robo-advisory services, small-sum foreign money transfers and loan product platforms, according to the FSC.

An independent showcase dedicated to regtech and subtech -- a new business area merging regulation with technology and supervision with technology – was also held.

It centered on how firms can utilize this field by utilizing fintech technologies to ensure regulatory compliance as well as support regulators. 

On Friday, there will be a seminar explaining a regulatory sandbox policy for the finance sector in Korea and other regions such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Korea put its finance sandbox policy into effect earlier this year, designating dozens of startups as the first participants for the scheme designed at speeding up the entry of fintech innovations.

A sandbox is a mechanism whereby regulations are temporarily suspended for new forms of financial services while they are being tested in the market to ensure that innovation is not unduly slowed down.

A session dedicated to insurtech -- convergence of insurance and technology -- will also be held, bringing related experts to discuss this emerging industry.

A series of events to provide information about smart finance management to the elderly, children and students will be held Saturday, wrapping up the three-day event, according to the FSC.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)