Less paperwork, AI-powered banking: KakaoBank joins race for foreign customers

KakaoBank on Monday launched a range of financial services for international residents in Korea, joining local lenders in the race to attract customers from the country's growing foreign population.

The new offering from the internet-only lender includes checking accounts, debit cards, overseas remittances and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered multilingual support.

"Even though banking has become much more convenient for domestic customers, foreign residents still face the kind of inconvenience we experienced in the past, when we had to visit bank branches just to open an account," Bae Jung-ho, head of KakaoBank's Foreign Customer Camp, said during a press conference in Seoul.

"By providing foreign residents with the same app that our 28 million customers already use, we were able to launch more than 50 services at once," he added.

KakaoBank's Foreign Resident Account is available to residents aged 19 or older who have an accepted form of identification and a mobile phone registered in their name. Applicants can open an account through a mobile chatbot in about five minutes, the bank said.

The application process uses public MyData services to verify applicants' names, nationalities and addresses, reducing the need to enter personal information manually.

The app also features AI-powered translation designed to address inconsistent language support across banking apps.

"Some banking apps provide multilingual support on certain screens, but when customers move to another function, the app suddenly switches back to Korean," Bae said, describing the challenges often faced by foreign residents.

KakaoBank has applied AI translation to app screens, important notifications and chat consultations. The service initially supports English, Chinese and Vietnamese, while customer consultations are available in English. The bank plans to expand language support to other languages next year.

Foreign residents can also apply for KakaoBank's debit card, which supports domestic payments and offers the same cashback benefits as cards available to Korean customers.

For international transfers, the internet-only lender has partnered with fintech firm Hanpass to offer remittances to around 200 countries in more than 50 currencies. Transfers to major destinations, including the United States and China, are free of charge.

KakaoBank will also offer its own service for receiving overseas remittances, which the bank expects to be particularly useful for international students.

The launch comes as Korean banks step up efforts to tap the growing foreign customer market.

Korea’s foreign population reached a record 2.78 million at the end of 2025, up 5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Competition is already underway. Toss Bank, another internet-only lender, has offered non-face-to-face account opening services for foreign residents since 2022, while major commercial banks have expanded multilingual services and dedicated branches for foreign customers.