NH Bank Establishes Blockchain Team... 'CBDC-STO Business' Speeds Up
According to a report by Meconomy News, NH Bank has recently established a blockchain team. For years, Nonghyup Bank has been making various attempts such as building a blockchain platform and actively participating in the Bank of Korea's digital currency (CBDC) test, but the team reorganization is expected to speed up. It is also expected to open up new businesses other than payments and receipts. According to financial media on Thursday, Nonghyup Bank recently organized a blockchain team under the Digital Strategy Division. The office is located at the NH Digital Innovation Campus in Yangjae-dong, Seoul. The team currently has six practitioners assigned to it.
The team's role is focused on advancing Nonghyup's blockchain technology and discovering new businesses related to it. In particular, CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) and STO (Security Token Offering), which are emerging as hot topics in the industry, are expected to be the main projects. Nonghyup Bank announced that it has completed the verification of overseas remittance technology utilizing the pilot system for the Bank of Korea's CBDC in 2022. CBDC is a currency that utilizes blockchain technology to electronically store value and make payments and settlements through fund transfers between users.
Since it is issued by the central bank (Bank of Korea), it is said to be highly secure and has relatively little fluctuation in value. The Bank of Korea has not decided to introduce CBDC to date, but it is laying the groundwork for its introduction by signing a contract with LG CNS on the 3rd to develop a utilization test system. According to Nonghyup Bank, overseas remittance technology utilizing CBDC can be completed within 30 seconds without any fees, unlike remittances through the existing Swift network, as there is no intermediary bank involved. The existing Swift method requires an intermediary bank and takes an average of 1-3 business days to retrieve the transferred amount.
Nonghyup Bank attracted attention at last year's Korea Fintech Week by installing a kiosk where users could experience the overseas remittance service based on the results of the Bank of Korea's CBDC experiment. STO is also expected to be one of the projects of the blockchain team. Nonghyup Bank formed a banking STO consortium in April last year. In addition to Nonghyup Bank, the consortium includes several financial companies and companies such as ▲ Jeonbuk Bank ▲ Suhyup Bank ▲ Tesa ▲ Seoul Auction Blue ▲ Galaxy Money Tree ▲ JB Investment.
STO is a method of securing ownership of a company's assets (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.) by issuing them as blockchain-based tokens. Investors can expect returns based on the percentage of tokens they own. In the process of issuing and distributing tokens, financial companies are responsible for building payment infrastructure or managing token accounts.
Nonghyup Bank's blockchain team is expected to perform these tasks in the future. In addition to the blockchain team, Nonghyup Bank has established an AI team and an open innovation team within the NH Digital R&D Center. The reorganization is aimed at strengthening capabilities at a time when the pace of digital transformation is accelerating and the financial sector's non-financial expansion is taking shape.
An official familiar with the internal situation said, "No specific plans have been made yet, but we are currently in the process of setting the direction of the business." An official from Nonghyup Bank also said, "We have created subdivided teams centered on areas that have become important recently, such as blockchain and AI."
