Korea’s BC Card expands overseas business; charges no fee on overseas card use
July 23, 2013 Leave a comment
2013-07-22 18:56
BC Card expands overseas business
By Park Ji-won
BC card is expanding, aiming to become the world’s leading payment services provider by bolstering its “Global Card” service. Global Card is the first Korean card that can be used around the world. 3.3 million of these cards have been issued as of last month. Like Visa, Master and JCB credit cards, BC is the only Korea-based card to offer this service. BC says it introduced the Global Card in response to the high fees that other cards charge Korean customers, even in their own country. While the BC charges no commission, Visa and Master impose fees on Korean customers even when they are using the cards inside the country.BC has expanded into China by linking with China UnionPay, the country’s only interbank network. The deal enabled BC to issue Chinese cards for the first time.
UnionPay, founded in 2002 for China’s banking card industry, is the country’s only organization representing the credit card industry.
According to BC officials, China UnionPay issued 3.5 million cards in China as of June 2013. Market insiders say that the cards are popular with Koreans living in China, and with Koreans studying there.
BC is also aiming to lead China’s mobile payment service sector. BC and KT are seeking to build a “near field communication” (NFC) system in China with state-owned telecommunication company China Mobile. KT is the largest shareholder in BC.
BC recently strengthened its partnerships with financial companies to support its diversified card payment service.
The result is “Ready-made,” a personalized financial payment service for individual companies, such as Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Post.
This has enabled BC to expand its business with secondary banks, including the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperation and the National Credit Union Federation of Korea.
BC card was founded in 1982 as the credit card association for local banks. The company has about 27 million card users and 2.5 million franchised stores as of July 2013.
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