Authorities to expand local companies’ access to financial database

South Korea’s financial authorities said Wednesday they will ramp up their efforts to open up financial big data to local markets in an effort to nurture the industry here.

Starting August, the Korea Credit Information Services, a pan-industry body tasked with data preservation and protection, will offer various information collected from nearly 50 million anonymous insurance consumers to both financial and nonfinancial companies via its online-based Financial Bigdata Open System, dubbed CreDB, the Financial Services Commission said.
 
The move is aimed at further expanding CreDB’s data-sharing capacity. Launched in June 2019, the system has opened up anonymized credit information, including loan records and credit card application, to financial firms, social commerce companies, as well as research institutions.

Making use of the additional insurance information offered by KCIS’ database, ranging from insurance types to reasons for cancellations, local financial companies will be able to recommend better customized finance products to consumers, the FSC said. 

Meanwhile, consumers’ transaction histories will also be opened up to industry players during the second half of this year by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, a nonprofit organization managing secure payment services. The agency plans to anonymize large sets of payment records related to banking transactions or electronic money transfer and offer them to local businesses through its data portal. 

“By partnering with related financial organizations, the FSC will speed up building infrastructure for local markets’ greater access to useful big data, while promoting policies to boost usage by setting up a special committee on big data industry,” the FSC said. 

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)