| Kwon Dae-young, director general of the Financial Services Commission's financial innovation bureau, announces the government's strategies to scale up the nation's fintech industry, at the Government Complex in Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of FSC |
By Park Jae-hyuk
The government will establish a help desk in Singapore early next year to support local fintech startups' expansion into Southeast Asia, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Wednesday.
The tentatively named Korea Startup Desk will open at the Korea Development Bank's branch in the city-state, which many Korean firms use as a bridgehead for inroads into Southeast Asia.
The desk will help Korean fintech startups understand industry trends and build networks with local financial firms, investors, accelerators and other startups,.
The Korea-ASEAN Financial Cooperation Center, which will be established in Jakarta next year, is also designed to provide support for international fintech cooperation.
In addition, the nation's financial services firms will open at least two additional fintech labs in ASEAN member states by the end of next year.
These are part of measures to scale up the nation's fintech industry and foster Korean startups so that they grow into “unicorns” ― privately held startup companies valued at over $1 billion.
The FSC has pursued 24 tasks in eight sectors to achieve this goal.
According to the financial regulator, the tasks can also be categorized as three pillars ― easing regulations, boosting investment and supporting overseas expansion.
Among measures on regulation and investment, the FSC mentioned a larger regulatory sandbox (testing environment), a lower barrier to the listing of fintech startups on the stock market, tax benefits and the creation of a 300 billion won ($251 million) fund over the next four years for investment in the fintech industry.
As for overseas expansion, the regulator vowed to support fintech firms making inroads into the ASEAN market.
“Despite fintech startups' growing interest in overseas expansion amid their difficulties in attracting enough customers in Korea, there has been insufficient support for them,” Kwon Dae-young, director general of the FSC's financial innovation bureau, said.
“There has been demand in the ASEAN market, but they have complained of the lack of experience, information, network and capability to research the market.”
The FSC has pushed ahead to attract foreign startups to Korea by lowering entry barriers. It also plans to raise awareness of the industry by enlarging fintech-related events.
On Dec. 16, the Korea-ASEAN Fintech Conference will take place in Seoul to discuss the outcome of fintech cooperation in the ASEAN region and ways to bolster this.
The annual Korea Fintech Week event is due next May 28. The FSC has decided to increase the number of participating companies to 150 from 50 this year.