Neck-and-neck contest for fintech assoc. chair narrows

For the first time ever, South Korea’s fintech industry association will see meaningful competition in electing its chair this month – reflecting the industry’s growing status in the broader financial arena. 

As the size of the industry grows, experts are hopeful that their clout will also increase when it is time to communicate with the new administration. 

The upcoming election for the next chair of the Korea Fintech Industry Association (KORFIN) was recently narrowed down to just three candidates.

Departing from convention, all three candidates to the contest slated for Feb. 17 are industry insiders, not former government officials. It is also worth noting the candidates are from investment, lending, and payment sectors respectively.  

They are: Chung In-young, CEO of December & Company, Inc; Hyemin Lee,

CEO and co-founder of Finda, Inc.; and Lee Geun-joo, the head of Korea Easy Payment Foundation. 

December & Company offers customized asset management services while Finda is an app that compares different loan options. The Korea Easy Payment Foundation, for its part, operates Zero Pay, a mobile payment app developed by the Seoul city government. 

The chair hopefuls have been campaigning since Jan. 19. This is a sharp departure from the past three elections when the chairperson was decided without much competition. 

THE BIG TASK

An industry insider told The Korea Economic Daily that the big advantage to serving as the next KORFIN chair is having the legitimacy to directly communicate with the next administration.

As the old adage goes, however, with great power comes great responsibility.

The next KORFIN chair will be expected to help pass the revised Electronic Financial Transaction Act.

The revised legislation stipulates a number of payment businesses and thus expected to pave the way for the commercializations. 

The issue of constructing a level playing field against the traditional banking sector is also important for the next chair. 

A person familiar with the dichotomy said, “The time is right for a small- to mid-sized fintech CEO to head the association since Seoul has repeatedly stressed the need for policies that disincentives the merging of domestic Big Tech and fintech.”

Industry insiders will also be keen to notice the strengthened authority of tech juggernauts with their own financial services, such as Kakao Corp. and Naver Corp. within the association. 

KORFIN amended its articles last month to differentiate the levels of voting rights among its 210 members. Half of the available votes will be allocated to all members as a single vote for each enterprise, while the other half will be distributed based on the membership dues each company pays. 

Under the revision, Kakao Pay will have 120 times more voting prowess as an average member. The mobile payment and digital wallet service by Kakao had been KORFIN’s chair company in the past; and thus paid the most amount in fees. 

Toss, operated by Viva Republica, will have 60 times as many votes when compared to the average. 

The new chairperson and the other board members to be elected during the upcoming general meeting will serve for two years.

Write to Jin-woo Park at jwp@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.