South Korea’s Woori Bank Co. plans to issue its own version of digital coin, tentatively named as ‘WeBee’ coin by the end of this year.

Woori Bank said on Wednesday that it inked a partnership agreement with fintech units Dayli Intelligence and The Loop under Seoul-based Dayli Financial Group. Under the terms of agreement, three parties will cooperate on developing and testing platforms for using digital coins specifically designed for Woori Bank.

The WeBee digital coin will operate via blockchain, a ledger where all participants share encrypted data, rather than having a centralized ledger managed by a reputable intermediary, for more secured and simpler transactions.

Dayli Intelligence and The Loop are fintech startups that develop digital coins as well as blockchain-based payment and remittance systems. They were picked as the pilot businesses for blockchain technology by the Ministry of Science and ICT in April.

Woori Bank has been developing new business models and services by incorporating new technologies such as blockchain and internet of things (IoT) since April.

By Park Joon-hyung

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