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The second largest bank in South Korea, Shinhan Bank, recently partnered with the country’s second-largest telecoms provider KT Corp in order to develop a new blockchain-based platform.

As the Korea Times reported, the new platform is intended to build on recent moves by regional governments across the country to introduce digital vouchers. In July 2018, KT Corp launched a commercial blockchain capable of handling 2,500 transactions per second. As such, the mobile giant became the first mobile carrier in the world to build such a platform.

As the government program outlines, the digital vouchers will be permitted to be used like cash in certain locations. The partnership between Shinhan and KT comes ahead of the planned rollout of the economic stimulus program which promotes a digital voucher scheme in the country.

Shinhan will be responsible for developing the new financial services platform including payment fulfillment and account management. Meanwhile, KT will set up the underlying blockchain infrastructure that will underpin the system.

The Head of Digital Strategy at Shinhan Bank, Jang Hyeon-ki said:

“Shinhan’s strategic partnership with KT is a part of our efforts to introduce a convergence between finance and ICT. The blockchain technology will upgrade customers’ financial activities to a new level.”

This is not Shinhan’s first attempt at blockchain technology. Earlier this year, the bank’s Digital Strategy department created a dedicated research center for blockchain technology. Aside from this, the bank is working to develop a blockchain-based integrated certification system for many financial activities such as wire transfers and foreign exchange transactions.