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| Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Sohn Byung-doo delivers an opening speech during a MyData forum in Seoul on June 29. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
KB and Shinhan are speeding up their drive to clinch more partnerships with non-banking players to obtain massive datasets, in their bid to take the lead in the data-driven financial paradigm shift.
The moves come ahead of the introduction of the government-driven "MyData" project under which financial firms will share personal information of their customers to a third-party MyData business operator. This will allow users to access scattered financial information from a single platform.
About 60 financial firms here ― including the aforementioned two along with their subsidiaries ― submitted preliminary applications for licenses to join the project to the Financial Supervisory Service last week. The regulator will name the first 20 firms to receive the license as early as October.
Major affiliates of the two leading financial holding firms are on track to expand their presence in data management by signing partnerships with existing non-financial firms which manage huge amounts of data.
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| KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo speaks during a meeting with executives to discuss the group's management strategy in the latter half of 2020 at its headquarters in Seoul, on July 10. Yonhap |
KB Kookmin Card, a credit card issuer of KB Financial Group, is teaming up with CJ Olive Networks, the IT service arm of CJ Group, to exchange datasets on customers' spending patterns. KB Card offers users' transaction-related information and the CJ affiliate provides parcel delivery data from CJ's logistics arm, CJ Logistics. The datasets, when combined, can generate synergy in analyzing more accurate consumption patterns in any given region, according to the two companies.
Shinhan Card is also ramping up efforts to develop its data management capability by joining hands with non-banking players.
The company recently formed a strategic big data alliance with SK Telecom, the nation's largest mobile carrier. Under the partnership, both sides are seeking to produce what they call "more value-added" datasets. SK Telecom secures tens of millions of subscribers in the local telecom market, so Shinhan Card expects the telecom firm to provide more datasets on users' mobile data consumption patterns.
Both sides believe the partnership will enable them to generate more trustworthy datasets in a wide variety of areas with the focus on tourism and shopping. They are also planning to unveil more data-driven analysis in users' spending patterns in leisure activities or food consumption.
Shinhan Bank, the group's cash-cow banking affiliate, has also reached a three-way partnership with LG U+ and CJ Olive Networks in pushing ahead with joint big data business.
They plan to share residents' consumption patterns in major commercial districts in Seoul after completing data exchanges and analysis. LG U+, another major mobile carrier here, can offer users' travel routes and content consumption patterns for Shinhan Bank to create a new revenue source amid fierce competition in the traditional banking industry.
Such converged datasets can also be provided to the government and enable authorities to come up with more realistic policies that can actually be of help to residents, according to the firms.
"Banks seek new business models by signing such a data-related partnership amid the growing importance of data analysis," a bank official said. "Agile data analysis is getting more and more crucial for financial firms here after the global spread of COVID-19 drastically shifted consumers' shopping patterns here and abroad."
