The Republic of Korea has built infrastructure that directly links national remittance service providers with those in receiving countries to provide real-time remittance services at affordable costs, through the removal of intermediary services such as SWIFT and the establishment of bilateral partnerships between clearing and settlement institutions (e.g. the Korea Financial Telecommunications and clearing institutions).
The Foreign Exchange Transactions Act was recently revised to permit the operation of Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) with certain requirements in order to increase remittance market competitiveness with lower costs.
To enable more MTOs to enter the remittance market, the Korean Government will explain registration requirements, processes and operating systems to MTOs. This will allow MTOs to better understand the reviews law and enter the remittance market.
The Korean Government will establish a joint platform for the banking sector to support the sharing of information on remitters. 15 commercial banks have committed to participate in building the information sharing platform, which is expected to simplify identification processes and make it easier for MTOs to comply with identification requirements.
The Cross Border Fund Transfer (CBFT) Service launched between Korea and Vietnam will be expanded to cover overall member countries of Asia Payment Network (APN), a regional cooperative network for payment clearing institutions in Asia (the project will be completed by end 2018). This service is expected to cut remittance fees and improve the speed of transfer and transparency
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