BC Card(CEO Lee, Gang-tae, www.bccard.com) revealed on the 14th that it signed an agreement with Cheongju City to build up first-of-its-kind infrastructure for payment in Korea that enables customers to pay with mobile cards in the traditional market.

The agreement made by BC Card and Cheongju City includes △ modernization of infrastructure for payment in the market △ increasing in the customer convenience through a variety of means of payment, and △ various kinds of service by increasing the sales of mid- and small-sized merchants, which are designed to attract as many people as possible to the traditional market.

▲ Gained support from local governments to establish the first-of-its-kind infrastructure nationwide for payment in the traditional market

The terminals distributed by the support from a local government(Cheongju City), the first of its kind in Korea, are the most cutting-edge units that enable customers to pay with their Korean Standard-certified mobile cards that are issued by BC Card. They will broaden the opportunities for customers to choose from many kinds of means of payment in the traditional market.

With agreement, the traditional market is expected to lay the groundwork for a more competitive and sustainable place by moving forward further from the protective measures such as the restriction on opening SSM(Super Supermarket) and the projects of modernizing the facilities, which have previously conducted.

▲ Diversified payment methods via issuing Onnuri Membership Card in the traditional market.

Onnuri Membership Card in the traditional market is the pre-paid rechargeable card (with the bearer registered), a converted version from the previously-issued Onnuri Electronic Coupons(with the bearer unregistered), which can be used only in the traditional market and can reduce the burden on the mid- and small-sized merchandisers due to no additional processing fees on member stores when being used in the market.

On the 27th September, Onnuri Membership Card for the traditional market is expected to be issued to the 4 banks, such as Woori Bank, NH Nonghyup Card, Industrial Bank of Korea(IBK), and Busan Bank, and to expand the member companies to be issued to in the future.

▲ Providing a variety of service to expand the sales of mid- and small-sized merchandisers

As seen in the example of “Mega-hit Business Start-up”, the application released earlier September by BC Card, the company provides consulting services to the merchandisers on the basis of the data of analysis into markets and customers in the neighborhood as well as supports the marketing activities to customers with a variety of information regarding the traditional market through multi-channels like websites or emails, etc.

For small merchandisers, mobile devices for payment based on smart phone application will be provided as well in order to save the cost of purchase and maintenance of additional gadgets.

In the ceremony, people including Lee, Gang-tae, CEO of BC Card, etc. purchased the items by using Onnuri Membership Card on Yukgeori Market for comprehensive goods and intensively discussed the strategies for carrying out the projects for encouraging the use of cards in the traditional market and revitalizing the market on the basis of Information Technology like mobile marketing, etc.

Lee, Gang-tae, CEO of BC Card said that the means of payment by various ways will make the traditional market grow on a sustainable basis with the aid of the strengthened competitiveness especially if payment can be made by modernized mobile cards. Also, he added, "BC Card will take the road of mutual cooperation with traditional marketplaces by providing the mobile solution integrated with ICT capability and financial service of Korea Telecom as well as the best service to the merchandisers by PI (Process Innovation).