"The goal of Hanpass(408470) is to grow into a platform where foreign residents and inbound tourists in Korea can use financial services most conveniently in Korea, and into a global digital payments corporations that connects people to people and country to country."
Lee Geun-ju, CEO of Hanpass, said the company plans to expand its business into a digital everyday finance platform that consolidations the finance and daily lives of foreign residents in Korea in line with the commercialization of stablecoins. Founded in Feb. 2017, the Fintech corporations Hanpass began with overseas remittance services for foreign workers.
Starting with overseas remittances, the company is now pushing a business that consolidations electronic wallets, prepaid cards, easy payments, overseas utility bill payments, mobile top-ups, insurance, commerce (Commerce·transaction), and job search and recruitment services into a single platform. Recently, it also unveiled the "GoHanpass" platform for foreign tourists visiting Korea.
Hanpass has built a network connecting more than 200 countries worldwide while operating its overseas remittance business for nearly 10 years. Cumulative remittances totaled about 5.6 trillion won. Based on this experience and growth potential, it also went public on the KOSDAQ this year, a first in the overseas remittance industry.
CEO Lee, who earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Dongguk University, served as head of smart finance at IBKIndustrial Bank of Korea (IBK)(024110) before taking the helm at Hanpass. Lee also previously served as ▲ head of the small business easy payment business task force ▲ head of the Korea easy payment promotion institute ▲ head of the Korea Fintech industry association. The following is a Q&A with Lee.
─What led you to pursue stablecoins as a new business?
"I believe future competitiveness in the international payments industry will be determined by who can naturally consolidate stablecoins with the existing financial infrastructure. Hanpass is focusing on this area, too. We are preparing a structure that flexibly links on-chain (On-chain·network on the Blockchain) settlement functions on top of the infrastructure for overseas remittances, foreign exchange, payments, and compliance (Compliance·regulatory compliance) that we have operated for 10 years.
Customers will use Hanpass services the same way they do now, but the key is to apply more efficient settlement methods internally depending on the characteristics of the transaction and each country's environment. Hanpass has accumulated this operational capability over many years of running the overseas remittance business and is also applying new technologies step by step."
─What is the status of your proof-of-concept (PoC) stage?
"Hanpass is pursuing pilot projects focusing on four areas. First is payment services for Koreans overseas. We are verifying whether applying stablecoin-based settlement to the process of paying overseas merchants can improve processing speed and expense efficiency. Second is a service that links foreign workers' wages and overseas remittances. We are reviewing a model that consolidations wage payments and remittances to the home country into a single process to enhance financial convenience for foreign workers while also improving corporations' payroll management efficiency.
Third is a payment platform for foreign visitors to Korea based on GoHanpass Wallet 2.0. We are supporting foreign tourists so they can conveniently use transportation, payments, shopping, and tourism services in Korea, and internally we are validating ways to apply digital settlement technology. Fourth is an application programming interface (API·Application Programming Interface) for business-to-business (B2B·Business-to-Business) trade transaction settlements. We are verifying an API-based consolidation model that allows corporations to keep using their existing accounting systems while accessing more efficient international settlement services."
─What differentiates Hanpass's stablecoin?
"Over the past 10 years of operating the overseas remittance business, Hanpass has not only built a remittance system but has been running global financial services such as partnerships with financial institutions by country, local payout networks, foreign exchange (FX·Foreign Exchange) operations, settlement processes, anti-money laundering (AML·Anti-Money Laundering), and know-your-customer (KYC·Know Your Customer).
Another strength is understanding foreign customers. Hanpass has steadily accumulated financial usage patterns and lifestyle data while providing services to diverse customer groups such as foreign workers, international students, and marriage immigrants. Because each customer has different remittance purposes, payment methods, and financial needs, hands-on operational experience becomes a crucial foundation for designing new services. With 10 years of experience, Hanpass plans to focus on turning new technologies into practical financial services."
─You chose the Philippines as the first country for overseas expansion.
"The Philippines is one of the world's largest recipients of overseas remittances, and exchanges of people with Korea are active. Hanpass has also accumulated the most experience and operational know-how by running remittance services that consolidate Korea and the Philippines over a long period. The Philippines will become a market where financial services are even more important.
For example, a foreign worker who receives wages in Korea can manage remitted funds in the home country with a local e-wallet and use them for payments or living expenses—all consolidated into a single financial service. Hanpass aims not just to send money but to consolidation the entirety of customers' financial lives.
Japan and Australia are also key strategic markets. Japan is a market with active economic and people-to-people exchanges with Korea and high growth potential in digital finance. In Australia, we are already operating the business based on a local subsidiary. It will serve as a hub that consolidations the Oceania market in the future."
─What are Hanpass's future goals?
"Hanpass's goal is to build a digital financial platform that allows foreign residents in Korea and overseas customers to use a range of financial services such as remittances, payments, and currency exchange without thinking about borders. Without needing to understand complex technologies, customers will use faster and more convenient financial services, while internally the most efficient payments infrastructure will operate—that is Hanpass's goal.
To that end, we will successfully complete the PoC and gradually apply stablecoin-based settlement technology to the overseas remittance and payments infrastructure. In the long term, the goal is to consolidation the foreigner everyday finance platform and global payments services into a single ecosystem. Customers will be able to use diverse financial services within one platform, and Hanpass aims to be the financial platform that consolidations every process safely and efficiently."