Recent IT and financial convergence has created new payment methods that go beyond conventional concepts. In particular, retail payment is one of the areas where rapid changes are taking place. The international brand of credit provides debit and prepaid as a means of payment. In Japan, IT companies are making use of one-stop payment methods such as credit cards and electronic money.
In Korea, recently, the Bank of Korea has introduced the “Medium-and Long-Term Payment and settlement Promotion Strategy” (payment settlement Vision2020) to respond to changes in the payment settlement paradigm. In December 2016, for the purpose of promoting a “coinless society,” which would reduce the distribution and management costs of coins, the coin was deposited into an electronic means of payment or a coin to a bank account through electronic payment means. The holding ratio of all means of payment has risen, with mobile card, prepaid card and electronic money doubling in 2015. As in Korea, transactions using means such as prepaid cards as a prepaid payment method in Japan have continued to increase recently. Prepaid transactions are sometimes called ‘electronic money’. The legal nature of electronic money has been actively discussed in Japan in the latter half of 1990.
This paper examines the prepaid system and electronic money under a new trading environment and examines the legal issues that arise in prepaid transactions.
Japan’s prepaid payment methods are regulated by Payment Services Act and Installment Sales Law. In Payment Services Act, paper type, IC type, and server type are subject to the regulation of prepaid payment methods. In addition, prepaid payment methods can be divided into self-issued and third-party issued types. The self-issued type is a prepaid payment method that can be used only at the publisher’s store, and the third-party publication type can be used at stores other than the publisher’s store. There is also a post-paid form in which prepaid transactions are charged by the card company and later demanded payment. However, this is not the subject of this article because it corresponds to payment of credit card. First, I examine the legal composition of the electronic money in Japan and Korea and think about the legal problems of the two countries in the pre-paid transaction.
First of all, the legal nature of electronic money shows a variety of theoretical confrontations in both countries. In Korea, however, the repayment of financial debt must be carried out in the currency, and in order for the repayment of debt to be established. In particular, in the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, it is stipulated that if an electronic money holder pays electronic money in accordance with the consent of the recipient, the obligation related to the payment of the electronic money is deemed to have been discharged. This means that electronic money holders and creditor recipients agree to pay by electronic money, and if the recipient receives electronic money, the fulfillment of the contents of the money debt may result in the reimbursement being effective. The legal nature of electronic money seems to be close to free money. In Japan, the theory of electronic money is different from banknotes or checks, and its legal position as a means of payment is not clear. There are many views that emphasize the information of electronic money and opinions that the bond relationship is backed by electronic money. Regulations are made by various laws in accordance with the content of electronic money, but the view of legal structure of electronic money has not been unified.
In both countries, the definition of electronic money is solved by the Electronic Financial Transactions Act and the Payment Services Act. However, in Korea, when the issuer of electronic money is not a financial institution such as a bank, the issuance price of electronic money can not be regarded as a deposit. So, There is a problem that the Depositor Protection Act is hard to apply. In my opinion, we need to deposit the amount equivalent to a certain percentage of the electronic money issuance to the issuer of the electronic money like Japan as deposit money. It is necessary to protect the consumer by getting the insurance guarantee of the financial institution of the bank or introducing insurance. On the other hand, On the other hand, in Japan, there may be a problem about how data is recovered when data is lost by IC type, server type prepaid payment methods. How can users assert and prove rights? When will the funds be transferred using the prepaid method and when will the payments be completed? It is not only the case that the system supplier and the agent of the prepaid type payment methods involve several people, but it is different from the case of the bank. In the future, it will be necessary to review this part along with the bank's electronic funds transfer.