FNSValue, UN agency to provide passwordless authentication for fintech

South Korean blockchain company FNSValue Co. on Monday signed a partnership agreement with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, to jointly provide fintech security solutions in emerging markets.

FNSValue and ITU’s Digital Financial Services Security Lab will establish a sandbox lab and support the development of technical guidelines and fintech-related regulations through testing best practices.

The two parties aim to provide strong blockchain-based secure authentication -- that doesn’t require a password -- to mobile payment and other digital financial services in emerging markets.

They will also provide guidance to developing countries on how to implement the passwordless authentication solution, as well as how regulators can assess the security of solutions and verify compliance with data protection and privacy rules.

Additionally, they plan to organize application challenges that will be open to professionals and students with the goal of developing real-world solutions based on ITU international standards for strong authentication using a sandbox and testbed environment.

"We are honored to be a partner of ITU, contributing to it and emerging countries with our passwordless blockchain secure authentication solution, which presents Korea's highly advanced fintech technology,” Jeon Seungju, Chair & CEO of FNSValue said.

“I expect FNSValue will make a meaningful impact on digital financial services by mitigating the vulnerabilities related to passwords with ITU,” he added.

“This exciting new partnership of ITU and FNSValue reflects our shared view that strong authentication can inspire trust in digital services, which required to make the most of these services and realize their full potential,” said Seizo Onoe, director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.