NH NongHyup Bank said Friday that it has partnered with Naver Cloud Platform to use a public cloud system to operate its mobile-based financial services, becoming the first company in the local banking industry to do so.
 
Under the partnership, the lender will employ a financial public cloud system offered by NCP -- the cloud affiliate of South Korea’s leading internet portal operator, Naver -- when running its own mobile banking application All One Bank, which offers savings and deposit services, as well as managing a vast amount of customer information, officials said. 

A public cloud refers to web-based cloud computing services offered by third-party providers whereby company officials can store and share resources on demand for a fee.

The move is aimed at preventing unexpected server overloads within the bank’s own digital banking services system as a result of heavy outbound internet traffic, they said.

Also, through the public cloud platform, the lender is expected to develop various digital financial services. The bank is slated to launch a general interbank recurring order payment service, a way of transferring payments from one bank account to another, on its mobile application, using a cloud-based technology called “optical character recognition,” which mechanically converts typed or handwritten text on paper bills into digital format. 

In response to safety concerns over the use of outside servers, the bank said NCP’s financial cloud platform had received a score of 100 percent on the safety assessment conducted by the state-run Financial Security Institute, an independent agency tasked with bolstering information management and protection capabilities in the financial sector. 

“Through close cooperation with Naver Cloud Platform, (NH NongHyup Bank) will develop innovative digital financial services and business models to better serve customers with differentiated experiences and values,” said Lee Sang-rae, vice president of NH NongHyup Bank’s digital finance division. 

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)