As the government expands the MyData framework to all sectors, new business opportunities are expected to grow, led by the fintech industry. As the scope of data use expands beyond finance to all industries, data-driven competition across industries is expected to accelerate.

The Personal Information Protection Commission revised the enforcement decree of the Personal Information Protection Act in February, expanding the right to request personal data transfers, which had been limited to the healthcare and telecommunications sectors, to all sectors including transport, culture, leisure and retail. Consumers will now be able to download their personal data directly or use a specialised personal information management institution to gather and use various data in one place. The revised decree is set to be implemented in phases from August this year after a grace period.

As the system expands, officials also gathered feedback from the field. The commission held a meeting on the 3rd with 17 companies and associations, including financial MyData service firms, to discuss ways to expand the convergence of financial and non-financial data.

Participants also pointed out that while financial MyData has produced practical services such as consolidated account information inquiries, refinancing loan comparisons and interest rate cut requests, limits on data use to the financial sector have constrained service advancement and revenue generation.

The key to this overhaul is combining financial and non-financial data. The commission is seeking to identify examples of converged services through an open call programme worth 1.7 billion won. It is also pushing to introduce a "profit-sharing model" that shares revenue from data use with data subjects. Suggested examples include tailored financial product recommendations linking card, telecoms, shopping and subscription data, and savings guides based on spending patterns.

The structure of data use itself is also changing. In the past, services were designed around data held by financial firms. Going forward, the model shifts to individuals integrating and managing diverse data and choosing services based on it.

Fintech industry says MyData must expand further

The industry sees the changes as likely to create opportunities for fintech companies.

Traditional financial firms have strengths in financial data and customer bases, while fintech companies are competitive in diverse non-financial data and user experience. The analysis is that as the data scope expands to all industries, companies that can quickly combine different types of data and turn them into services could gain an advantage.

But to spread the system, data transmitters for individuals are limited to large businesses that meet certain thresholds, such as average revenue exceeding 180 billion won and at least 1 million data subjects, which could restrict initial data supply. Critics also say the pace of service expansion could slow if work to build infrastructure, such as an API-based transfer system and ensuring the reliability of specialised personal information management institutions, does not proceed in parallel.

Overall, the industry is in a mood to assess the expansion positively. Some also expect the broader MyData framework to be a turning point that shifts the axis of competition in the financial industry from "products" to "data".

With both financial firms and fintech companies increasingly compelled to shift into data platform operators, some expect the environment to favour fintech firms, particularly those strong in using non-financial data and user experience. Competition is expected to depend on how much diverse data companies can secure and how precisely they combine it to turn it into tangible value and revenue.

A fintech industry official said, "Expanding the all-sector MyData framework will bring positive changes across the data industry." The official said financial MyData has greatly improved convenience by enabling individuals to check scattered asset information in one place, and that the number of service subscribers through MyData operators has surpassed 100 million, making it an everyday service.

The official added, "Based on these results, as the right to request personal data transfers expands to all sectors including healthcare, telecommunications and energy, opportunities will open for companies to create new services and business models." The official said that if MyData operators receive and use data from various fields through APIs, participation in the market by data infrastructure providers and platform operators will become more active, which is expected to have a positive impact on revitalising the overall data industry.

Another official said, "The expansion of MyData is a change the platform industry has long anticipated and could be a big opportunity in terms of service expansion." The official said as the data scope widens, various new services will become possible and an environment favourable to platform-based operators will be created.

The official added, "With many people using MyData through platforms, the fintech industry welcomes this policy direction." The official said further institutional expansion will be needed, as expanding data is essential for more services to emerge.