Korean Payment Improving external conditions

Research evidence excerpt

Korean Payment Improving external conditions

26 May 2026

Equities

Internet Software & Services Korean Payment

Improving external conditions Korea

◆ In 1Q26, credit card and online shopping transactions increased Jaewoong Won*

due to inflationary effects and high-end consumption Analyst, Korea Financials & Fintech The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

Limited, Seoul Securities Branch

◆ Expectations for a KRW stablecoin continue; the real impact jaewoong.won@kr.hsbc.com

+82 2 3706 8770

may be limited, similar to simple payments (QR, smartphone)

Chan Park*

Research Associate, Korea Autos & Financials

◆ Maintain Buy on NHN KCP and Reduce on Kakao Pay; raise The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

TPs to reflect 1Q26 results and global peer valuation changes Limited,chan.park@kr.hsbc.comSeoul Securities Branch

+822 3706 8713

Total payment volume rose, driven by inflationary effects and luxury consumption,

despite the prolonged sluggish economy. In 1Q26, total credit card transactions and * Employed by a non-US affiliate of HSBC Securities (USA) Inc, and is

not registered/ qualified pursuant to FINRA regulations

online shopping volumes rose 7.2% y-o-y and 10.3% y-o-y (Exhibits 2-3). Among

online shopping segments, Internet and mobile shopping increased by 12.2% y-o-y

and 9.8% y-o-y, respectively. We also believe rising inbound tourist numbers contributed

to offline payment growth (Exhibit 5).

In the KRW stablecoin ecosystem, Payment Gateway (PG) firms have limited room

to grow. There are many efforts to prepare for a future KRW stablecoin ecosystem by

financial companies and PG firms (Exhibit 6). However, we still believe the real impact

from a KRW stablecoin will be limited due to its restricted utilisation (The future of KRW