[Photo=Yonhapnews]

The Financial Services Commission held a regular meeting on the 15th and newly designated five innovative financial services including the Phase 2 implementation of Project Hangang. The biggest change in this Phase 2 transition is the expansion of participating banks. With Gyeongnam Bank and IM Bank newly joining the existing Phase 1, which had seven participating banks including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, Nonghyup, Corporate, and Busan Bank, the demonstration foundation has been further expanded.

The user base is also significantly increasing. The number of deposit token accounts, which were capped at a maximum of 100,000 in Phase 1, will be expanded to 500,000 in Phase 2. The usage is also broadening from existing merchants to small business owners and large enterprises, and remittance functions and treasury fund execution functions are newly added in addition to payment functions.

User convenience has also greatly improved. Automatic deposit/withdrawal conversion, biometric authentication, and direct payment methods have been newly introduced for deposit tokens, and the holding limit has been significantly raised from 1 million won (cumulative 5 million won) per wallet to 10 million won (cumulative 100 million won). For remittance limits, 1 million won per transaction and 5 million won per day apply on a personal basis. The addition of non-face-to-face e-wallet opening for businesses and cash receipt issuance functions is expected to expand the scope of deposit token practicality verification.

The Financial Services Commission also consecutively designated services targeting foreign visitors to Korea as innovative financial services on that day. Orange Square's "unmanned exchange machine and app-based prepaid card service" and Naver Financial's "prepaid electronic payment service for foreign visitors" are the targets. Both services are designed to allow foreign tourists to easily use prepaid cards with a maximum limit of 1 million won without restrictions on domestic identity verification procedures, and are expected to contribute to activating domestic tourism and consumption.

The "joint loan service" by Kakao Bank and Busan Bank was also designated as an innovative financial service on that day. The plan combines Kakao Bank's low capital financing costs and non-face-to-face infrastructure with Busan Bank's corporate credit assessment capabilities to provide more convenient loans at lower interest rates to small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners.

Financial authorities plan to comprehensively verify the practical feasibility of CBDC-based digital currency through Phase 2 of Project Hangang and prepare the groundwork for the full-scale transition to digital financial infrastructure in the future.