Toss Bank extends exclusive online services to foreign customers

Toss Bank headquarters in southern Seoul / Newsis

Foreigners can open accounts at Toss Bank in online-exclusive process

By Anna J. Park

Foreign nationals residing in Korea can now open bank accounts at Toss Bank, one of Korea's internet-only banks, without having to visit an offline bank branch.

Toss Bank announced Monday that it has extended the online-exclusive procedure of opening bank accounts to foreign customers, as the country's first internet-only bank to remove the inconvenience of foreign customers having to visit an offline bank branch to open a bank account.

Foreign nationals who are registered residents of Korea can now open Toss Bank accounts in a completely online process, as of Monday. Those who haven't yet opened any Korean bank accounts can also open accounts at Toss Bank.

The digital bank explains that foreign customers can use its various services for their accounts, just like Korean customers. The bank offers a 2 percent annual pre-tax interest rate if customers deposit less than 100 million won ($79,000) in a new account. When the balance exceeds 100 million won, the interest rate is lowered to 0.1 percent a year.

Foreign customers can also use the bank's debit card that offers cashback rewards on a maximum of 40,300 won per month as well as limitless 3 percent cashback rewards for payments conducted overseas. While they can also enjoy the benefit of no charges for transferring money to other local banks or for withdrawing cash from ATMs, foreign customers however, are not eligible for credit loans or overdrafts.

“Although the number of foreign nationals residing in Korea now reaches about 1.96 million, banking services for them have been pretty much limited, and many of them were alienated from the country's financial system,” a Toss Bank official said. “The bank aims to continue to embrace customers who haven't fully enjoyed banking services.”

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Justice, the number of registered foreign residents in Korea stood at 1.57 million as of the end of 2021. Foreign nationals comprise nearly 4 percent of Korea's entire population.

Toss Bank's services are available only in the Korean language, but customers can rely on a customer information center for resolving any inconveniences. The bank also plans to launch international wiring services in the future.

As the country's third internet-only bank, Toss Bank was officially launched in October 2021, following K bank and KakaoBank which both began their banking services in 2017.