As reported in the South Korea Herald, after years of discussions with local authorities, Apple Pay has been approved by the financial regulators in South Korea, paving the way for the mobile payment system to be introduced in the first half of this year following years of discussions.
The South Korea Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a press release, “In light of the relevant rules and regulations and their interpretation, we confirm that credit card companies are allowed to push for the introduction of the Apple Pay service since they have followed the necessary procedures in following the rules and regulations”.
Among the FSC’s recommendations is that credit card companies should not pass on fees incurred when customers or retailers use Apple Pay to the company, while calling for measures to ensure that consumers are protected from risks such as identity theft and other risks associated with Apple Pay.
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In the beginning, it was expected that the service would be launched at the end of last year. There has been a lot of speculation about Apple Pay over the past few months, but experts are now predicting it will launch by the middle of the first half of this year.
Initially, the idea of bringing the Apple Pay digital payment system to South Korea was discussed back in 2017. However, Apple has had a lot of trouble obtaining registration as an e-finance business operator, and regulators are currently investigating whether Apple Pay violates local regulations.
As well as a possible launch being affected by technical hurdles, negotiations around a possible launch were also hindered by the fact that NFC terminals were not widely used in South Korean retail stores at the time.
The adoption of NFC terminals has increased in recent years, but Samsung smartphones have established Samsung Pay as the dominant payment method thanks to its presence in South Korea. This is why the launch of Apple Pay is expected to increase competition in the local mobile payment market due to the presence of Apple.
Since its launch in the United States in 2014, Apple Pay has slowly expanded to more countries/regions around the world, as well as expanding the list of financial institutions that support the feature. Apple Pay is also available on the Mac for Web purchases.
