South Korea’s leading financial groups are intensifying competition to dominate the “super app” market by consolidating banking, securities, card and insurance services into a single platform.
Shinhan Financial Group plans to release an improved version of its “Shinhan Super SOL” app in June, which integrates services across its major affiliates, including banking, securities, cards and insurance sectors, industry sources said on Tuesday.
The upgraded app will allow users to handle not only banking transactions but also stock transactions and eventually cryptocurrency transactions. Following regulatory developments regarding stablecoins, the app will include a cryptocurrency wallet linked to a bank account, allowing users to withdraw funds and purchase digital assets directly.
The current version of Super SOL offers only partial integration, requiring users to switch to another app for services such as applying for a brokerage account. The improved version aims to eliminate this fragmentation and provide a fully integrated experience within a single platform.
The app will also introduce an AI agent feature designed to act as a personalized financial assistant. Shinhan also plans to expand its non-financial services, including food delivery platform Tangyo and content linked to the Korean Baseball Association, which serves as the official sponsor.
Currently, the top super app is KB Financial Group’s KB Star Banking, which has more than 24 million users and approximately 14 million monthly active users.
KB plans to focus on evolving its existing platform. By the end of the year, we aim to introduce a range of natural language-based AI services that will allow users to receive AI-generated answers directly within the app, without having to go to an external search platform.
The company is also preparing to roll out a real-time translation service for expats, allowing the app’s interface to be automatically translated into the user’s language of choice without the need for separate multilingual versions.
Hana Financial Group and Woori Financial Group face relatively greater challenges in implementing their super app strategies due to their weaker non-bank affiliates compared to KB and Shinhan.
To address this, Hana is leveraging Hana Card’s ‘Travelog’ card, considered the key ‘killer content’ in the non-banking sector, as a differentiator. Users can apply for a card directly within the Super App and purchase travel insurance when traveling abroad.
Hana also has strengths in services for seniors. For example, when a user inquires about testamentary trusts through the AI chatbot on the Hana OneQ app, the system connects to the Living Trust Center interface and allows non-face-to-face consultation.
Meanwhile, Woori is emphasizing synergies with its recently acquired insurance divisions, Toyo Life Insurance and ABL Life Insurance, and its newly launched securities division. Within the Wooriwon Banking app, users can check insurance contracts and make claims in real time without having to install a separate securities app, as well as use overseas stock trading services linked to the mobile trading system.
NH Agricultural Cooperative Bank is also moving to strengthen its integration. The company is considering adding an integrated investment account (IMA) opening function for NH Investment Securities to the “NH All One Bank” platform operated by the company.
The move appears to be aimed at curbing the movement of assets within the group as the movement of funds from banks to securities companies accelerates. The platform already allows users to trade stocks without using a separate brokerage app, and the addition of IMA functionality further enhances its functionality.
Park In-hye, Min-woo Kim
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
