KakaoBank awarded presidential commendation for anti-money laundering innovation

KakaoBank CEO Yun Ho-young, right, poses with Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon, center, after receiving a presidential commendation at the 19th Anti-Money Laundering Day ceremony at the Korea Federation of Banks headquarters in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of KakaoBank

KakaoBank said Tuesday that it has been recognized as an outstanding institution in anti-money laundering (AML), and received a presidential commendation at the 19th Anti-Money Laundering Day ceremony hosted by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

The ceremony was held on Friday at the Korea Federation of Banks headquarters in Seoul.

Anti-Money Laundering Day is an annual event hosted by the FIU since 2007 to promote transparency in financial transactions. The ceremony honors institutions and individuals who have contributed to strengthening and advancing AML systems.

In this year's assessment, KakaoBank was recognized for building an AML framework optimized for a non-face-to-face financial environment and for leveraging data technologies to more precisely mitigate money laundering risks.

Key achievements included advancing systems based on "RegTech" — technology designed to help financial institutions comply more efficiently and accurately with regulations.

These included improving the accuracy of non-face-to-face customer verification by actively using public MyData (Korea's data-sharing initiative introduced in 2023), strengthening suspicious transaction reporting, developing a risk assessment model tailored for an internet-only bank, and enhancing transparency in virtual asset transactions.

Internally, the bank continues to enhance the expertise of its dedicated AML staff through invited lectures by former law enforcement professionals and participation in external industry conferences.

"As non-face-to-face finance has become mainstream, AML systems must also continue to evolve to suit the digital environment," a KakaoBank official said. "This award reinforces our sense of responsibility, and we will continue to build an even more robust and secure financial safety net based on technology and data."