“Foreign currency exchange, downtown tax refund, and overseas remittances all at once! DPEC KOREA opens Innovative Foreign Exchange Financial Services with Emart24.”

DPEC KOREA (CEO: Yujin Sohn) will supply Digital ATMs (DTM) for ▲ Currency Exchange ▲ Downtown Tax Refunds ▲ and Overseas Remittances at one time to increase the convenience of foreign tourists, to Emart24 for the first time in the industry.

First of all, customers can enjoy untact currency exchange via Digital ATMs. This is available with a limit of up to $2000 per person per day and covers 16 currencies, including the US dollar, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and European euro. The exchange rate is applied in real-time on the day of Hana Bank.

To use the foreign currency exchange service, customers must bring ID cards such as passports, national ID cards, and driver's licenses to prove their identity. In particular, this device is based on a two-step KYC (Know Your Customer) authentication system, which checks the authenticity of ID cards and whether the ID card matches the photo by recognizing the face in real-time.

Customers can use the system in the following order: ‘Identity authentication with ID cards’ → ‘Membership sign up’ → ‘Issuance of QR code’ → ‘Insert foreign currency for exchange’.

Through these digital ATMs, customers can get a QR code that is printed on paper once, and they can use the currency exchange service immediately after scanning the QR code at DTMs installed nationwide without the hassle of scanning ID cards or passports during their stay in Korea. In other words, the QR code can be used at both domestic and overseas DTMs, not just at the DTM where it was issued.

In addition, the digital ATMs will also offer the first Downtown Tax-refund service in the convenience store industry.

Previously, foreign tourists purchased at domestic duty-free shops and got refunds at the airport, but with Digital ATMs, they can now get their domestic taxes refunded directly on purchases made at Global Tax Free (GTF) duty-free shops.

In addition, as the digital ATMs are already equipped with the 2-step identity authentication technology required for overseas remittances, the company is also preparing for overseas remittance services in consultation with EMART24.

DPEC KOREA's strategy is to provide digital ATMs that provide the financial services most foreign customers need to convenience stores that operate 24 hours a day to enhance shopping convenience and drive foot traffic to the stores.

The Korea Tourist Service reported that the number of foreign tourists who visited Korea in October (1,229,899) increased by 158.3% compared to the same month last year (476,097).

As the number of foreign tourists is increasing, it is expected that foreigners who visit stores using digital ATMs will help convenience stores' sales by purchasing food products, daily necessities, and SIM chips.

Jongwan Lee, Emart24 Service Platform Team Leader, said, “These Digital ATMs are equipped with a 2-step identity authentication function, so we can foresee the possibility of expanding services such as virtual currency ATMs, token security (STO) untact account issuances and transactions in the future." and added "We will continue to expand various convenience services for Koreans and foreigners and develop differentiated services to enhance customer satisfaction and benefits. We are grateful to DPEC KOREA for providing us with this Innovative Foreign Exchange Financial Services Digital ATM Platform Technology, and we plan to accelerate our domestic and international expansion through cooperation with EMART, Emart everyday, and group’s companies."

Yujin Sohn, CEO of DPEC KOREA, said, “The significance of entering Innovative Foreign Exchange Financial Services through collaboration with EMART24 is the expansion of financial convenience services for tourists to 24-hour convenience stores, hypermarkets, department stores, duty-free shops, and shopping malls. The unfortunate situation is that change (coins) under 1,000 won generated from unmanned currency exchange KIOSKs currently installed and operated at airports, hotels, etc. are unusable.” and expected, “By charging the e-wallet (wallet) provided to the customer with digital money with blockchain fintech technology and providing it to be used solely at the customer's option, such as small payments in convenience stores, withdrawals in thousands of won, and donations, we expect that it will not only renew the image of tourism in Korea, which has been tarnished by breakage income but also accelerate the overseas expansion of the Digital ATM Techfin Platform."

DPEC KOREA installed and operated foreign currency exchange ATMs at Accuon Savings Bank's Seomyeon Financial Center in December 2021. This was the first collaboration between a financial institution and a fintech company in Korea to be developed and operated based on the government's (Ministry of Strategy and Finance) request for untact Innovative Foreign Exchange Financial Services for the convenience of foreign tourists visiting Korea and Korean tourists departing Korea, announced in June 2020. Combining untact KYC (customer verification), AML (anti-money laundering), and blockchain wallet (e-wallet) technology based on forgery identification and reading technology for Korean ID cards and passports around the world made this service possible. And it was made possible through a consortium with DAWINKS (CEO: Andy Lee), This partner company secured industrial property rights such as related patents, copyrights, and sandbox certification from the Ministry of Science and Technology.