NH Bank to Provide Its API to KB Card

KB Card is planning to take on NH Bank’s financial IT.
This is the first time when a financial company is using its competitor’s IT. Exchange of technologies between competitors is more shocking than cross-purchase between Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
According to industries, NH Bank and KB Card are going to sign an agreement where KB Card will use NH Bank’s API (Application Programming Interface) for its financial platform.
This is the first cross-purchase of digital technologies between two different financial companies. NH Bank and KB Card are also going to share other technologies in various digital fields in the future.
This is the first time when a financial company is using technologies from another financial company instead of its technologies or technologies from its subsidiaries.
It is heard that NH Bank and KB Card are going to sign a contract regarding supply of NH Bank’s API sometime during this month at the earliest. This partnership will initiate horizontal partnership between financial companies regarding supply of API.
KB Card is going to use NH Bank’s API for its services. By doing so, it will be pushing for a project that will drastically enhance screening capability of its members. It will utilize NH Bank’s API for screening potential members and setting card limits. It will also digitalize and upgrade its face-to-face screening process into an API-based process. When NH Bank’s customers agree to having breakdown of their accounts to be shared, they will not have to go through complicated and inconvenient processes when they want to be issued with KB Card’s cards.

NH Bank has 141 APIs that are currently being used by about 60 startup companies. As a result of an agreement between NH Bank and KB Card, there is a high chance that there will be cross-purchase between API-based financial companies in the future.
There are many implications from this agreement. A financial company that had been maintaining conservative approach and closed services for many years is working with an ‘opponent’ to respond to ‘digital era’. It is expected that this will have huge impact on financial ecosystem.
Experts believe that this agreement has launched the start of cooperation between financial companies to prepare for digital era.
This agreement implies that KB Card decided that its capabilities will not be sufficient to prepare for digital financial market that is changing rapidly and that it would internalize a competitor’s technologies and minimize costs through synergy.
Shinhan Card, Lotte Card, and BC Card sharing their franchise stores to develop a joint QR pay has a same context. Their goal is to grab upper hands together by forming a partnership rather than providing individual QR service. It is heard that KB Card, Samsung Card, and Hyundai Card will soon become part of the joint QR pay.
“We are planning to sign a contract that will send our API to KB Card.” said a representative for NH Bank. “A new digital financial era where financial companies share their ITs has just started.”
Staff Reporter Gil, Jaeshik | osolgil@etnews.com