What services do you want most from Korean banks?
Woori Bank CEO Lee Soon-woo, second from left, uses a “media table” with students of Korea University at the lender’s first smart branch in the neighborhood of the college in northern Seoul, September. / Courtesy of Woori
By Dang Viet Thai, Underwood International College of Yonsei University
While Korean banks have many acknowledgement-worthy aspects, the system is, however, not a perfect one. From the viewpoint of a foreigner living in Korea, I believe that there are some opportunities for improvement.
Firstly, as of right now, the Korean banking system is an extremely closed one, resulting in difficulty of access, especially for foreigners. Many banks, for example, do not issue Visa credit cards to foreigners, even those working in Korea. While I am uncertain of whether this is the bank policy or left up to the discretion of individual branch managers, it is clearly quite troublesome to expatriates. The difficulty of gaining access to credit cards makes it very cumbersome to participate in many sectors of the Korean economy. Take online purchase, for example. Of course, one can always do bank transfer, however, credit card is certainly a much faster and more convenient.
Secondly, e-banking in Korea is not at all easy and accessible. The main problem lies in customers having to use Internet Explorer (IE) browser for all the transitions. It is a wide-known fact that IEis among the least advanced browsers for any type of Internet tasks. It is easy to hang, crash, freeze, and stop responding. It has unsolvable problems regarding viewing ability and security control. Doing bank transactions with such an unreliable browser is very time-consuming and frustrating. I have had many times while trying to transfer money to another account through e-banking service, when I encountered numerous times-out, crashes, or nonresponses from IE browser.
Finally, there is the difficulty of getting a housing loan in Korea, even for long-term foreign residents. In the US, for example, professors, business men, etc who are earning good salaries are regularly able to get loans for up to 80 percent of the cost of a home, apartment, condominium, regardless of their nationality. Here in Korea, it is almost impossible for non-citizens to get even a small loan, let alone one of this size.
The main problem is the discriminatory attitude of Korean banks. It is curious to me why they do not treat non-citizens, even those who are long-term residents of Korea who contribute to the country, society, and economy in many ways, as equal to Korean citizens. It is a frustration for foreigners and also, a possible loss for Korea, if it wants to foster economic and cultural growth with the assistance of expatriate community.
So long as this happens, Korea will continue to have difficulty in convincing non-Korean citizens that Korea would be a good place to spend their lives, and thus will find it difficult to compete for those highly skilled workers demanded by the knowledge economy.
Banking is a complicated field and it is never easy to change such a big, complex system. However, changes are vital, especially in this era of rapidly changing technology and market. History has shown that a different idea, a spark of change can make an economic sector and even the economy itself outpace its competitors.
With some changes, possibly to the problems listed above, I believe that Korean banking system will be able to gain more trust, cooperation and companionship from both Koreans and foreigners alike in the near future.
Dang Viet Thai is an international student at Yonsei University.