Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai (fifth from left, second row) poses with leaders and ranking officials of global firms at the Global Loyalty Network consortium held at The Shilla in Seoul on Tuesday. (Hana Financial Group)

Hana Bank, a major South Korean lender, has been fostering cross-border connections with overseas firms and gearing up to take its online payment platform global.

The firm’s holding group Hana Financial Group hosted a consortium of its Global Loyalty Network platform on Nov. 24, attended by 100 officials from 30 global banking groups, distributors and other financial institutions from 10 nations including China, Japan, Thailand, Russia, the US and the UK.

The aim of the GLN is to become a comprehensive digital platform where global financial institutions, distributors and other firms can exchange digital assets such as reward points, mileages and cryptocurrencies freely by the first-half of next year.

GLN is based on Hana Financial’s membership platform Hana Members, launched in 2015, where its customers can easily cash back and use reward points spread across multiple accounts.

Firms participating in the GLN project will use blockchain technology to inspect the system and keep an eye on the finances, in order to bolster security in cross-border exchanges.

To bolster GLN’s mobile payment services, Hana Bank formed a strategic partnership with Shinsegae last year to utilize the nation’s largest retailer’s SSG Pay services.

Through the partnership, SSG Pay users will be able to make cross-border payments through GLN. Meanwhile, foreign visitors to Korea will be able to make easy payments through GLN in SSG Pay affiliated stores.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)