South Korea has recently decided on an emergency regulation on cryptocurrencies. This prohibits banks from directly participating in activities related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

The emergency regulations of South Korea

As a reminder, the South Korean government has banned financial institutions from entering the forex market of cryptocurrencies, or even selling them.

As a result, most major banks have stopped opening virtual accounts, which in Korea are needed to trade virtual currencies.

The reasons for these emergency measures would be according to the South Korean government that "the service could be exploited by criminals using counterfeit credit cards". Also, the government's threats have already been followed: a service that allowed the purchase of virtual currencies through credit cards on the Bithumb platform, had to stop its activities two months after its launch.

More credit card points for customers

For this reason, two banks in South Korea, Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank, will no longer provide Bitcoin credit card service as of January.

15, for Shinhan Bank, and 22 for BK Kookmin Bank.

More specifically, it should be noted that Shinhan Bank distributed loyalty points for its customers. It was the Shinhan Fan Club. Customers accumulate and spend points when using their credit card with seven Shinhan Bank affiliates.

As for KB Kookmin Bank, here again it is a reward system called Liiv Mate. This service can accumulate points when credit cards are used in KB companies. For example, at KB Life Insurance or KB Savings Bank.

Then, these points are converted into usable money at merchants associated with KB Kookmin Card.

As a result, these two banks have created a partnership with the cryptocurrency trading platform, Coinplug.

Coinplug will redeem these points in Bitcoin.