Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Average annual salary at internet-only lenders tops W100 mil.
The logo of the country's largest internet-only lender KakaoBank / Yonhap
By Yi Whan-woo
By Yi Whan-woo
Three digital banks in Korea pay around 100 million won ($76,000) in average annual salary to their employees, the companies said Tuesday in their respective reports.
The biggest of the three, KakaoBank said its executives and rank-and-file employees received 107 million won on average in 2022.
K bank said the average annual salary for its entire 489 employees amounted to 96 million won last year, up from 80 million won a year earlier.
Toss Bank paid the highest salary among the three internet-only banks, with its figure averaging 119 million won.
Toss Bank's average salary increased last year nearly two-fold from a year earlier. This was seen as a surprise considering it was launched in October 2021.
Both KakaoBank and K Bank were established in 2016.
“We mostly hired experienced employees when we launched our business to quickly catch up in the industry and that's possibly why our salary is relatively high compared to our competitors,” Toss Bank said.
The salary paid by Toss Bank is larger than those earned by employees at major banks. All five major banks ― KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup ― have been paying more than 100 million won since 2021.
Back then, salaries averaged 110.7 million won at KB Kookmin, 105.2 million at Shinhan, 105.2 million won at Hana, 101.7 million won at Woori and 101.6 million at NH NongHyup.