BC Card will be designated as the first financial company to specialize in combining pseudonym data and strengthen its status as a data hub for KT Group.

The license refers to an institution designated by the government to combine pseudonym data held by different personal data generators and processors. Combining pseudonym data is one of the indispensable key elements for the development of big data and artificial intelligence industries.

BC Card (CEO Choi Won-seok) announced on October 7th that it has been designated as an institution specializing in combining pseudonym data by the Ministry of Science and ICT. Thanks to that, BC Card has become the only financial company in South Korea that has the authority to combine non-financial data.

Accordingly, BC Card will receive an application for a combination and safely combine pseudonym data so that a specific individual cannot be recognized, and then deliver the results.

Recently, as the boundaries between finance and non-financial companies have been broken down due to the entry of big-tech companies such as Kakao and Naver into the financial sector, attempts to expand new businesses in the credit card industry continue. BC Card explained that this license acquisition is also one of the measures to expand its new business.

As it has the authority to combine data between heterogeneous (non-financial + non-financial) fields, it has also taken the first step toward becoming a data combination hub for KT Group.

KT Group has various non-financial data held by subsidiaries in the group as well as financial data held by BC Card and K-Bank. The plan is to promote data analysis advancement through collaboration with institutions that want to be combined with this data, and to contribute to the creation of new added value.

BC Card plans to complete the construction of infrastructure for combined institutions within this year, and start a data combination project within KT Group next year. Starting with obtaining licenses for combined specialized institutions, it has also set an internal goal of changing into data companies and challenging data specialized institutions designated by the Financial Services Commission under the Credit Data Act.

Shin Jong-cheol, head of the data combination business TF, said, "The credit card industry currently has to find a new growth breakthrough, and BC Card will actively participate in the government's promotion of heterogeneous data combination and openness." He also stressed, "Based on this license acquisition, BC Card will transform itself into a data company."

Meanwhile, BC Card has become the only subsidiary in KT Group that has designated an agency specializing in combining pseudonym data and acquired a financial license, "My Credit Data Management Service."