Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, February 3 (Xinhua)-- after years of discussions with local authorities, South Korea's Apple Apple Pay has been approved by financial regulators, paving the way for the launch of a mobile payment system in the first half of this year, The Korea Herald reported.

"taking into account the relevant rules and regulations and their interpretation, we confirm that credit card companies can promote the introduction of Apple Pay services because they have followed the necessary procedures," South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a press release.

FSC stressed that credit card companies should not transfer fees incurred by using Apple Pay to customers or stores, and called for measures to ensure that customers are protected from risks such as personal information theft.

The service was originally expected to be launched at the end of last year. But experts now say Apple's Apple Pay may be launched in the middle of the first half of this year, according to the report.

Preliminary discussions on the introduction of Apple Pay digital payment system to South Korea began as early as 2017, but Apple has struggled to obtain registration for e-finance operators, and regulators are investigating whether Apple Pay violates local regulations and laws.

Negotiations over a possible launch also encountered technical hurdles because NFC terminals were not widely used in South Korean retail stores at the time.

Later, the adoption rate of NFC terminals has increased, but Samsung smartphones have made Samsung Pay the main payment method because of their advantages in South Korea, so the launch of Apple's Apple Pay is expected to strengthen competition in the local mobile payment market.

CTOnews.com has learned that since its launch in the United States in 2014, Apple Pay has slowly expanded to more countries around the world, while expanding the list of financial institutions that support this feature. With Apple Pay, users can easily add credit or debit cards from supported banks to their iPhone and Apple Watch to make purchases on contactless payment terminals around the world. Apple Pay can also be used for Web purchases on Mac.

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