SK Telecom said Thursday it signed an agreement with Nautilus Hyosung Inc. to work together on the mobile carrier’s smart finance business project.

The country’s leading mobile carrier said that it formed a partnership with Korea’ top automatic teller machine company to build smart branches.

Smart branch is a mini branch service that uses SKT’s information and communication technology to offer various banking services, such as deposit, withdrawal, video banking and financial consulting.

Banks are expected to benefit from increase sales of financial products, expanded point of contact with customers, reduced cost for opening new branched and enhanced efficiency in manpower management, said SKT officials.

“SKT aims to position itself as a global leader of financial innovation by expanding its smart finance business to overseas markets after accumulating in-depth know-how in smart branch via the pilot project with Korea Exchange Bank,” said Yook Tae-sun, senior vice president and head of industry productivity enhancement business office at SKT.

(sharon@heraldcorp.com)