South Korea\'s financial watchdog is demanding stronger IT stability and internal controls from big tech-linked electronic financial service providers as they become part of everyday financial infrastructure. The move follows a string of system outages this year, including disruptions to payments, top-ups and remittances, online and offline payment failures and duplicate debits on automatic transfers. The regulator urged isolation systems to stop failures spreading across services and said it would conduct on-site inspections and take strict action over major incidents.

A planned merger in South Korea’s shared electric bicycle market has collapsed, scrapping a deal that could have produced a dominant operator. Socar’s sale of its Elecle e-bike unit to Kakao Mobility, operator of T Bike, was recently called off after final talks. Mobility platforms are also pushing into lifestyle services such as tire discounts and insurance. The article also highlights developments in Tesla, China’s autonomous driving market, Rivian, robotaxis and EV motorsports.