The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will visit Naver Financial to hold a meeting with the CEOs of 10 fintech and electronic payment gateway (PG) companies. This move is interpreted as the FSS's intention to strengthen communication with the electronic financial transaction industry and actively exercise management and supervision, especially with the establishment of a dedicated IT-digital department this year.
According to financial authorities on the 4th, the FSS is set to hold a meeting on the 12th with Lee Geun-ju, chairman of the Fintech Industry Association, and 10 CEOs of major electronic financial businesses. The meeting will be hosted by Lee Jong-oh, Assistant Governor of the FSS's IT and digital sector, with the Directors-General of the Electronic Financial Supervision Bureau and Electronic Financial Inspection Bureau also in attendance. Industry leaders such as Park Sang-jin of Naver Financial, Shin Won-geun of Kakao Pay, and Lee Seung-gun of Toss are all expected to attend.
The FSS has also invited Jeong Chan-mook, CEO of Coupang Pay, which offers a dedicated payment service for Coupang. Other prominent PG company CEOs expected to attend include Park Jun-seok of NHN KCP, Im Han-wook, the upcoming CEO of Toss Payments, Kim Gwang-cheol of NICE Payments, and Moon Byeong-rae of PayUp. Kim Hyeong-woo of Travel Wallet and Kim Tae-hoon of Bank Salad are also slated to attend this meeting.
The meeting will be held at the Naver Financial office located in Naver headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Typically, such gatherings between the FSS and various financial company CEOs are held at the FSS's head office in Yeouido, Seoul, or at industry-specific associations. Given this tradition, the choice of Naver Financial's office for the meeting venue is considered unusual.
The reason for the FSS's specific visit to Naver Financial is to emphasize its hands-on approach. Naver Financial holds significant symbolic value as a leading electronic financial business in Korea. The annual on-and-offline payment amount of Naver Financial reaches 40 trillion won. Its application has more than 2 million monthly active users. In consideration of its industry standing, the FSS has designated Naver Financial as the first electronic financial business for a regular inspection this year.
An FSS official noted that Naver Financial's symbolic status as the number one company in Korea for electronic financial transactions and the concentration of many electronic financial businesses around its office in Seongnam were both considered. The official explained that since the meeting aims to listen to industry voices, they found it more appropriate to hold the meeting outside the FSS head office.
In this meeting, the FSS is expected to emphasize compliance with regulations on prepaid deposits and sales revenue management. Following a large-scale settlement delay incident involving Timon and Wemakeprice last year, financial authorities have been maintaining a stance of strengthened management and supervision of electronic financial businesses. The Financial Services Commission has proposed an amendment to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act to strengthen the obligation of sales revenue management for electronic financial businesses and grant the authority to take timely corrective action. At the end of last year, the FSS established a dedicated supervision and inspection bureau for electronic financial businesses and began conducting regular inspections of these businesses from this year.