South Korea Forms The New Policy-Making Body To Nurture Fintech Industry

After a lot of regulatory scrutiny since the beginning of 2018, the South Korean government and its regulatory body have been recently taking some initiative to develop a conducive environment for the growth of crypto and finch industry. Just a few days back the country’s regulatory watchdog hinted towards positive crypto guidelines which are in-line with the G20 directives.

South Korea’s primary financial regulator - The Financial Services Commission (FSC) has recently formed a new policy-making body called the Financial Innovation Bureau to nurture and look after the growth of the fintech sector while considering it as a part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The primary focus of the Innovation Bureau will be on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology, reports the Korea Times.

This decision of the formation of the new body was taken last week during a cabinet meeting between the FSC the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The meeting was conducted with the aim to safeguard investors while at the same time nurturing the innovation in the fintech space. One of the regulators said that big data and fintech would remain in the scope of the new entity.

He added: “The FSC plans a major organizational reshuffle to better protect financial consumers and proactively respond to financial innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. The new Financial Innovation Bureau will also be tasked with policy initiatives for financial innovation, such as innovating financial services using fintech or big data, and responses to new developments and challenges such as cryptocurrencies.”

In South Korea, a lot of fintech-driven initiatives have been launched recently to adapt its legal framework and economy, to the upcoming digital currency economy. Last week the South Korean policy makers also introduced anti-money laundering (AML) requirements while asking its local banks to expand the diligence procedures for cryptocurrency exchanges. Lawmakers have been making all efforts to fast-track bills in the cryptocurrency sector.

FANTOM Foundation, South Korea’s Directed Acyclic Graph-based (DAG) smart contract platform told Korea Times that cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology are just inevitable for any economy and welcomed the latest initiative from FSC.

It said: “Virtual coin and related blockchain technologies will come to our everyday life sooner or later. I think Korea can be an ideal incubator to test drive new virtual coins and their blockchain systems. Now it is the government’s role to establish a favorable environment for virtual coins and their blockchains.”