Tap-to-pay in South Korea, without the infrastructure project
South Korea is targeted for general availability in Q1 2027. The KFTC integration is in build, and BC Card scheme certification — essential in a market where BC Card is a major domestic network — is planned alongside it. Korea is one of the highest card-penetration markets on earth, which makes contactless acceptance especially valuable.
The Korea launch ships with localized Hangul merchant-onboarding flows, KRW settlement, and BOK-compliant onboarding. Platforms will accept the global schemes plus BC Card and the leading Korean wallets — Toss, Kakao Pay, and Naver Pay — through the same SDK used in every other Tapped market.
KFTC integration in build; BC Card scheme certification planned for Q1 2027. Hangul onboarding flows ship with GA.
Local payment rails we support in South Korea
Cards alone do not win a market in Asia. Tapped exposes the domestic rails South Korea merchants actually expect, through the same SDK as card acceptance:
| Rail | What it covers |
|---|---|
| KFTC | The Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute network — domestic account and card clearing. |
| Toss | One of Korea's largest fintech wallets and money apps. |
| Kakao Pay | The payment arm of KakaoTalk, ubiquitous in Korean consumer spend. |
| Naver Pay | Naver's wallet, dominant across Korean e-commerce. |
Card schemes certified for South Korea
Every kernel we ship for South Korea is production-certified at the scheme layer before the market goes live — Visa VCPS / L3 EMV Contactless, Mastercard M/Chip and PayPass, JCB J/Speedy, and UnionPay UPI QuickPass as applicable. Certified schemes here:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- JCB
- UnionPay
- BC Card
Kernel renewals and updates ship as a platform release — you inherit them without re-certifying.
Regulation & licensing in South Korea
Tapped operates in South Korea under Bank of Korea and the Financial Services Commission (BOK · FSC) supervision, with a published licensing posture of Electronic Financial Business partner. Your merchants onboard as sub-merchants beneath that arrangement, so you do not need to hold your own payment licence to go live.
We are PCI-DSS Level 1 attested annually, SOC 2 Type II, and ISO 27001 certified, with regional data controls applied where the regulator or sponsor bank requires it.
Settlement & payouts
Standard settlement in South Korea is T+1, paid out in South Korean won (KRW). The blended processing rate is 3.15% — full per-market rates are on the pricing page, with nothing to negotiate.
Who builds on Tapped in South Korea
Tapped is built for vertical SaaS platforms that want to embed payment acceptance into their own product — not for individual merchants. Common deployments in South Korea:
- Restaurant & F&B platforms — tap at the table or counter on the staff's own phone.
- Salon, wellness & booking platforms — collect payment inside the booking flow.
- Field-services & delivery platforms — accept payment at the customer's door on a rider device.
- Healthcare & clinic platforms — copay and consultation collections.
- Hospitality & PMS platforms — folio checkout at the front desk.