BC Card has decided to share its Korean-standard mobile card issuing technology with all financial companies and start-ups to foster the domestic fin-tech industry. Through this sharing, card companies’ resources that could have been spent on overlapping investment on mobile card technology could be used efficiently. Furthermore, they expect decrease of loyalty paid to global networks to advance national interests.

BC Card (President and CEO, Joon Hee Suh, www.bccard.com) stated that BC Card will share its core mobile card technology, including the mobile card specs, assets and operation knowhow, to foster domestic mobile card industry.

Its plans are first to share its mobile card source codes which are Korean-standard, then provide mobile card solutions, all for free.

From now on, banks, stock firms or any credit finance companies that wish to issue mobile cards can use BC Card’s mobile card sources codes and build their own mobile card infrastructure without investing in additional development or paying loyalty. Start-up companies can develop and provide various mobile card services without being burdened by the initial investment.

Also by openly sharing KS-standard source codes, BC Card expects a lot of mobile card related solutions to become open-source. Open-source refers to technology’s core source codes being made available so they can be used freely by the public. One of the most successful open-source products is Linux operation system. As open-sourcing Linux has ultimately led to the development of Google’s smartphone operation system, Android, BC Card expects its decisions of technology-sharing and mutual cooperation to become the foundation needed for a creative economy.

BC Card also expects its open-sourcing decisions to become a catalyst in decreasing the outflow of national wealth. Currently, card companies pay loyalty for almost 60~70% of domestically used plastic cards to international networks every year. According to KB financial institute, this loyalty sums up to approximately 141.4 billion KRW annually 27.5 billion KRW of this loyalty is fined due to cards’ overseas use, the remaining 113.9 billion KRW is billed due to domestic use.

However as KS-standard mobile card technology is made open, all card companies can commonly issue local mobile cards which can reduce the loyalty paid to international networks significantly.

Mobile card development may lead from 6 months to 1 year, but once the source codes are made open available, financial companies can begin issuing cards in one month, 3 months to the latest.

CEO of BC Card, Joon Hee Suh stated, "As a member of kt group, BC Card has decided to make mobile card related technology open-source in hopes of speeding up the market development and creating a foundation for ‘creative economy.’ BC has invested more than 30 billion KRW in developing this technology during the last five years we wish this hard decision can help advance the growth of Korean fin-tech industry.

He also added, ‘BC Card’s mobile card aims to be an open platform so anyone can participate. We will continue to develop new fin-tech services to foster local financial industry.

BC Card has co-developed Korean standard specifications with Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in 2011. These standards have become a pillar in developing a safe mobile payment environment in Korea without being dependent on international networks’ technology.