Kakao Bank and K-Bank gets a go ahead to offer online-only services by mid-2016

They are the first ones to be licensed in Korea in 23 years.

According to BMI Research, South Korea's Financial Services Commission has given its preliminary approval for Kakao Bank and K-Bank to begin offering online-only commercial banking services by mid-2016.

Here's more from BMI Research:

Backed by investors from the social media and e-commerce sectors, as well as from the mobile services sector, the newcomers - the first new commercial banking service providers to be licensed in Korea in 23 years - have the potential to disrupt the maturing Internet banking business models of the country's traditional banks. As such, we expect to see new services, applications, delivery mechanisms and pricing regimes rolled out by industry stakeholders, altering the sector's competitive dynamics.

Kakao Bank is backed by social messaging provider Kakao, along with ecommerce providers Tencent and eBay as well as Korea Investment & Securities, Kookmin Bank and Loen Entertainment.

The entity will look to leverage its 38mn registered Kakao Talk messaging subscribers as well as the 5mn KakaoPay mobile payment service users plus the millions of casual online shoppers and media consumers that are registered with Tencent and eBay. Two-way access to the Chinese financial services and consumer markets will be facilitated by Tencent's establishment of an online-only banking service in China.

Meanwhile, rival K-Bank's 21 backers include mobile network operator KT Corporation, online payments specialist Alipay, Woori Bank and Hyundai Securities. KT is the largest mobile service provider in Korea, serving 18 .5mn subscribers as of Q315m, while AliPay is part of China's Alibaba e-commerce and Internet media services giant, with a well-established online financial services business .