South Korean portal giant Naver’s office messaging platform Line Works popular in Japan is catching on with Korean financial institutions including KEB Hana Bank.

According to sources on Sunday, roughly 200 bankers at KEB Hana Bank are using Line Works on a trial basis to communicate between front-line branches and the headquarters and to support one-stop financial services.

Line Works developed by Naver’s subsidiary Works Mobile is a messenger dedicated to business customers. KEB Hana said it is using the app to collect feedback from branches and share management strategies in a fast and effective manner.

Line Works has grabbed attention from local financial companies for its strong security and convenience. When a Line Works user loses his or her smartphone, the company administrator can remotely reset the app, and at the request of customers, delete all data in the phone, for example. Other security features including the restriction of text copying and file download, data retention period setting, and password lock are also available.

It is especially optimized for mobile use, allowing users to access bulletin, community and chat areas conveniently to exchange information.

Despite such advantages, the app has not been widely used by local companies until KEB Hana recently started testing it. Line Works is already used by some 30,000 businesses as of last July, but most of them are in Japan or other countries. In Japan, the app is used by Nomura Securities and other major financial firms. KEB Hana is the first financial institution that considers adopting Line Works in Korea.

Naver hopes that the acceptation of its messenger service by Korea’s security-sensitive financial industry will bring positive results in other industry sectors. Multiple Korean securities companies are discussing shift to Line Works.

By Oh Dae-seok and Minu Kim

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