South Korea's financial regulator will release a roadmap as early as this year for the adoption of artificial intelligence agents that select products and complete payments on behalf of users. The plan aims to prepare for an era in which AI participates in economic activity by addressing the standardization of payment infrastructure, rules on delegating authority, liability for transaction errors and security measures.
Yoo Young-joon, director general for digital finance policy at the Financial Services Commission, said on the 12th at the third Seoul Economic Daily Stablecoin Forum, hosted by Seoul Economic Daily and Decenter at Coinone's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, that the roadmap is nearly complete. "The AI agent roadmap is almost finished, so you will be able to see it soon," he said.
The roadmap is being built around four pillars: standardizing payment infrastructure, revising laws and regulations, protecting consumers, and managing security and risk. Yoo said the first priority is establishing payment infrastructure standards so that agents can transact smoothly across multiple platforms. Related payment standards are emerging overseas, he said, but Korea has yet to build out a sufficiently standardized payment network on which agents can operate.
Regulators are also reviewing ways to clarify the rules needed for people to delegate transaction authority to agents and to revamp procedures for consenting to the provision of information. Because it is difficult to obtain individual consent each time an agent passes user information to multiple sites to compare terms, officials are examining whether the system can shift to advance, blanket consent. Yoo stressed the need to set standards for liability when an agent makes a choice that differs from the user's intent, as well as for cancellations, refunds and compensation for damages.
On security and risk management, he said security should be strengthened from the agent design stage and that a "Know Your Agent," or KYA, framework is needed to verify the identity of agents acting as counterparties. "In the case of financial products, a herding of agents could concentrate funds or spill over into systemic risk," Yoo said. "Sellers could exploit an agent's judgment to steer consumers toward choices that are not in their best interest, so related rules or guidelines are also needed." He added, "As long as network separation rules remain in place, it will be difficult for agents to operate freely. I think we could see financial firms operating with network separation fully lifted around the first half of next year."
Seo Byung-yoon, co-chief executive of DSRV, who also spoke at the forum, said AI agents could open a new market for small-value data trading. He cited examples such as buying only the regional or age-group information needed from a card company's payment data to produce a commercial district analysis report, or using automakers' data to predict used-car prices and accident rates. "In the past, it was hard for people to process and deliver data worth a few hundred or a few thousand won," Seo said. "With the emergence of AI agents, new value can be created from data that has gone unused."
He expected stablecoins to play a growing role as the payment method supporting such transactions. Card payments and other methods that rely on existing trading relationships and financial infrastructure will be used in the early stages, he said, but common payment infrastructure will be needed for agents to transact freely across borders. "With hacking incidents occurring one after another recently, security is also important," Seo said. "We are considering keeping most assets in cold wallets and topping up agent wallets with only the small amounts needed for transactions."
Original reporting by Kim Jung-woo for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.
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