South Korea’s Mirae Asset Daewoo became the country’s first brokerage house to go digital by launching a payment gateway (PG) service with eyes on the global payment market through ventures with overseas simple payment service providers.

The securities company announced Thursday that it finished registration of the PG business on Wednesday for the first time in the industry after the revision of the related law that allows brokerages to provide a PG service. Before the amendment, securities firms couldn’t cooperate with foreign payment service providers as they were banned from offering PG service. The Financial Services Commission (FSC), however, passed the revision last December to make it possible for local brokerage houses to partner with payment companies amid growing popularity of digital payment.

Mirae Asset Daewoo reportedly has been in talks with Chinese tech giant Tencent to sign a business agreement to allow Chinese tourists visiting Korea to make payment via WeChat Pay, one of the most popular digital payment platform services in China. It expects that spending of Chinese visitors in the country would sharply grow once the service is launched.

Mirae Asset Daewoo said it aims to provide WeChat Pay service around August or September and has been discussing ways to benefit clients and merchants by minimizing fees. Separately, it is also preparing to launch a simple payment service which allows local customers to pay with a debit card or through a cash management account (CMA).​

By Cho Si-young and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]