Partners to build financial services framework around digital assets

Korea Investment & Securities' expertise to combine with Kakao's platform reach

Corporate identities of Kakao Group and Korea Investment & Securities. [Kakao Bank]
Corporate identities of Kakao Group and Korea Investment & Securities. [Kakao Bank]

Kakao Group is expanding its financial services partnership with Korea Investment & Securities to cover the full digital asset lifecycle — from issuance and retail distribution to investment, remittance and settlement. The two sides plan to combine Korea Investment & Securities' asset management capabilities with Kakao's platform strength to build core infrastructure, including digital wallets, and jointly develop new services.

Kakao Group — comprising Kakao, Kakao Bank and Kakao Pay — and Korea Investment & Securities announced Thursday they had signed a strategic memorandum of understanding to jointly develop services and marketing related to digital asset issuance and distribution. The partnership aims to broaden customer touchpoints beyond issuance and distribution, making digital assets usable for investment and fund transfers.

The two companies will work to define concrete use cases for digital assets and pursue financial services — including investment, remittance and settlement — built around them. Cooperation will also extend to building key infrastructure such as digital wallets, digital asset custody and customer-facing service integration.

The agreement expands what had been a bilateral relationship between Kakao Bank and Korea Investment & Securities into a group-wide Kakao initiative. Korea Investment & Securities had previously been exploring synergy models with Kakao Bank across digital asset projects, including digital wallet development, stablecoins and STO distribution. The new deal extends that collaboration to other Kakao affiliates as the partners move toward full-scale execution.

"This will be an opportunity to explore new possibilities in digital asset-based financial services by combining Korea Investment & Securities' financial expertise with Kakao Group's platform reach," Korea Investment & Securities President Kim Sung-hwan said. "Through close cooperation, we will lead change in the digital asset market and deliver differentiated financial services to customers."

Yoon Ho-young, chief executive of Kakao Bank and co-head of Kakao Group's stablecoin TF, said the partnership would go beyond linking services related to digital asset issuance and distribution. "We will expand the scope of cooperation across the entire digital asset infrastructure," he said, "and build a collaboration model that combines the strengths of both companies to deliver real value to customers."


forest@heraldcorp.com