'Bank Sign' still irrelevant to banks

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By Lee Kyung-min

“Bank Sign,” a certificate that cost tens of billions of won, will remain irrelevant unless major modifications are made to revise its drawbacks, according to industry sources and an expert.

In a joint project with Samsung SDS, the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) representing some 60 Korean banks and foreign banks with Korean branches nationwide spent the banks' membership fees to develop the certificate.

Developed with blockchain technology, Bank Sign was intended to replace or reduce the dominance of the much-dreaded “authenticated certificate” better known as “public certificate.”

Mobile and online financial services are practically unavailable without one or the other certificate.

The authenticated certificate requires multiple software downloads to computers, a time-consuming, frustration-inducing process long criticized for hindering the effective delivery of financial services.

Since its launch in August 2018, 15 banks including major commercial and state-run ones have made Bank Sign available for financial transactions.

However, none of them view the certificate as having any relevance.

“It is an issue that we do not much pay attention to,” said an industry official who requested anonymity.

“We do not have any opinion other than we have no problem operating our financial transactions with or without it.”

The seemingly blase response highlights the waste of banks' membership fees on a system with critical shortcomings.

Bank Sign is not available at major public organizations where personal data on income or health is preserved including the National Health Insurance Service and National Tax Service.

This means the new certificate is rendered useless without the old one, a problem compounded by its “customer inconvenience.”

The new certificate is not available unless a user runs a different app within an app operated by banks, which is a step all but redundant to the usual financial services.

Frequent bugs while running the app are another deterrent to using it.

Many banks are strengthening their existing mobile and online platforms without thinking too much about the new certification program, in an implied move to drop “Bank Sign” altogether.

The possibility is all the more heightened as a revision to a related law is pending at the National Assembly.

Under the revision submitted by the Ministry of Science and ICT, consumers will be able to use certificates issued by both government and private organizations. Currently, only six government bodies can issue them.

“The certificate did not offer any significant features to boost convenience at the time of its launch, and it still doesn't,” a professor specializing in international data protection at a Seoul-based university said. He made the comments on condition of anonymity.

“Banks are able to develop a certification system of their own now, due in large part to the revised law under which only the government had been allowed to do so. And a new certificate will remain largely ignored or continue to be a hassle to financial consumers. Measures should be introduced before the revision gets passed.”