The Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC) is launching a proof-of-concept (PoC) to introduce "agentic payments," in which conversational artificial intelligence (AI) handles everything from product discovery to payment. The plan is to accelerate the development of next-generation payment infrastructure alongside an organizational overhaul aimed at supporting the financial sector's AI transformation (AX).
KFTC Chairman Chae Byung-deuk unveiled the "Financial Sector AI Transformation Support Plan" at a press briefing on the 3rd (local time) in Uzbekistan, where he was visiting to attend the Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual meeting. "The competitiveness of the financial industry hinges on the speed of AI transformation," Chae said. "We are pushing to transition into an AI-centered organization by establishing a dedicated AX unit, among other measures."
Internally, KFTC plans to build an AI agent-based work environment to expand AI use across employees' operations. To this end, it has developed a "finance-specialized corpus" supporting AI training based on financial data and has distributed it to the banking sector.
The "agentic payment platform," the next-generation payment infrastructure, will be advanced starting with the PoC stage. Under the system, conversational AI handles everything from product search to payment without the user operating a separate application. "AI agent payments are an area where security must be a prerequisite, and they are currently being tested mainly for small-value transactions," Chae said. "Through technical verification, we will build a new commerce model."
KFTC is also working with financial institutions and fintech firms to form a "Financial Sector AX Alliance." Fraud detection and anti-money laundering (AML) are cited as key areas for AI applications. "KFTC has a strength in AI-based detection because it can view data comprehensively through the financial shared network," Chae said. "KFTC is an institution that must pursue stability and innovation at the same time. We will drive AI innovation based on the stability of the financial shared network," he emphasized.
KFTC is also accelerating the expansion of its overseas payment networks. On April 1, it launched a two-way QR payment service with Indonesia, recording roughly 400 to 500 transactions. It plans to expand to India and Vietnam within the year and is in talks with Singapore and Thailand, while discussions on introducing QR payments with Uzbekistan began on the occasion of this visit.
