The Financial Supervisory Service said on the 28th that fees have inched down since introducing a disclosure system for payment fees charged by electronic financial companies such as Naver Pay, Kakao Pay, and Coupang Pay.
According to the "Status of payment fee disclosures by electronic financial companies" released by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) that day, the prepaid fee that electronic financial companies charge merchants fell 0.07 percentage points, from 1.85% during February–July last year to 1.78% from September last year to February this year. Over the same period, card fees fell 0.01 percentage points, from 2.03% to 2.02%.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) assessed that market discipline through the system has worked to some extent, as payment fees declined slightly compared with the previous disclosure. To ease the financial burden on merchants such as small business owners, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) introduced the electronic financial company payment fee disclosure system in 2023.
Currently, 18 electronic financial companies disclose payment fee rates semiannually. Toss Payments, Naver Financial, Kakao Pay, KGINICIS, 11st, Gmarket, Coupang Pay, and Woowa Brothers (Baemin) are subject to disclosure.
An official at the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said, "It is common for electronic financial companies' card payment fees to favor lower-tier businesses with smaller sales, such as micro and small merchants," adding, "Prepaid payment fees are also understood to be set at levels similar to card payment fees by merchant sales bracket."
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) plans to expand the scope of fee disclosure to all electronic financial companies by 2028. It also plans to guide a reasonable payment fee structure through measures such as operating an industry task force (TF).