By Kim Bo-eun
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Kakao Bank, one of two internet-only banks here, had 10 million customers as of July 11. The bank started customer services on July 27, 2017. Customers were defined as those who have opened an account, as people can use other services offered by Kakao Bank without signing up for an account.
With the exception of internet banks in China, this is the fastest rate of growth in customers of internet banks worldwide. China was excluded because of the sheer scale of its population.
"Considering the size of Korea's population, 10 million is not a small number. It is significant to us in that we achieved this mark in a short period," a bank official said. Korea's population is around 50 million.
"While this could be attributed to the brand of Kakao, we believe this was possible due to the convenience of the services we offer," he said. Kakao, the dominant mobile messaging app here, has grown into an IT conglomerate.
Kakao Bank said that it gets an average of 14,000 new customers a day.
Data shows customers in their 20s account for the largest portion as of the end of June, followed by those in their 30s and 40s. Kakao also has over 200,000 customers in their 60s and older.
Foreigners, however, remain excluded due to the government's system that only accepts local registration cards as forms of ID when opening an account via an application.
As of the end of June, Kakao had 17,573.5 billion won in deposits and 11,327.6 billion won in loans.
In March, Kakao enabled customers to open stock accounts, in collaboration with Korea Investment Securities. The number of stock accounts opened with Kakao steadily grew over the months, reaching 941,452 on July 10.
This was the first step Kakao took toward its aim to make itself a "mobile finance platform."
Customers can also check their credit rating through Kakao, and the number of customers using this service has also grown steadily, reaching 3,11,898 on July 10.
Prospects for Kakao Bank appear bright, with the internet bank posting its first surplus in the first quarter of this year and set to post surging earnings in the latter half of the year. Meanwhile, Kakao is set to become the bank's majority shareholder, which would increase the bank's financial stability.
Kakao plans to go public in the latter half of next year.
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