Gov't data disruptions hit Korea's financial services ahead of Chuseok holiday

A service disruption notice is posted at a commercial bank in Seoul, Monday, as network outages persist following a fire at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon. Yonhap

Financial services in Korea remained disrupted Monday, after a lithium-ion battery fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) on Friday incapacitated identity verification systems nationwide.

While no major consumer-facing breakdowns were reported, banks remained in emergency mode, as the end-of-month surge in transactions and the approaching Chuseok holiday added pressure to restore services.

As of Monday, national ID cards, or resident registration cards, remained unusable via online and automated channels, suspending non-face-to-face account openings and certificate issuance.

At physical branches, tellers had to manually verify identities by calling the government's automated response system, resulting in delays.

Brokerages and cryptocurrency exchanges reported similar issues. Remote account openings, one-time password issuance and password resets were halted due to the inability to authenticate users via national ID cards.

A banking industry official said that although some digital services were temporarily unavailable and customers experienced delays at branches, overall inconvenience has remained limited.

Over the weekend, financial institutions notified customers that alternative forms of ID — including physical driver's licenses, passports, foreign resident cards and mobile IDs issued before the fire — would be accepted.

"While the situation appears to be under control, we recommend customers with urgent needs visit branches in person rather than rely on online services," the official added.

Until Monday morning, loan applicants were required to submit physical documents, as systems enabling third-party access to government administrative data, including by financial institutions, remained offline.

Internet-only banks were among the hardest hit. Kbank and Toss Bank temporarily suspended applications for several loan products, including those for the self-employed, while KakaoBank required applicants to upload scanned copies of physical documents. Those services have since been restored.

Industry officials warn that public service disruptions could continue beyond the Chuseok holiday.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, only 62 of the government’s 647 administrative systems had been restored as of noon Monday — a recovery rate of just 9.6 percent. Full restoration is expected to take at least two weeks.

The blaze broke out Friday evening at the NIRS headquarters in Daejeon, which oversees the country's data centers and network security systems, disabling a significant portion of the government’s digital infrastructure.

In response, financial authorities and major banks — including Shinhan, KB, Woori, and Hana — held emergency meetings and activated crisis task forces over the weekend. Banks also distributed internal guidelines and customer service manuals to branch staff in an effort to minimize consumer disruption.

"We will consider flexible measures, such as issuing no-action letters, to ensure financial institutions aren’t penalized for taking proactive steps to protect consumers," said Kwon Dae-young, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, during an emergency meeting Sunday.