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Kakao Bank's 100-Day Anniversary Press Conference

Published : Wednesday, February 7, 2018, 5:00 pm
ACROFAN=Yong-Man Kwon | yongman.kwon@acrofan.com | SNS
On November 3, Kakao Bank of Korea Corp., held a press conference on the 100-day anniversary of its launch at Kakao Bank Seoul office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and introduced operation performance about 100-day after launch and future product services. In the past three months, Kakao Bank has introduced key indicators such as the number of customers who opened accounts, which is 4.35 million, deposits of 4.20 trillion won, loans of 3.39 trillion won, and customer satisfaction of 76.5 percent.

As of Oct. 31, 2017, Kakao Bank recorded a total of 4.35 million customers who opened accounts, with an average of 43,500 customers a day. As a result of the survey, customer satisfaction was 76.5% and when including the answer, ‘moderate’, it was 98%. The reasons for using Kakao Bank app were simple transfer without a certificate, easy and convenient process and low commission. In addition, 3.18 million people applied for the Kakao Friends check cards, and the most popular character was introduced as "Ryan", which was chosen by 53%.

As of the end of October, Kakao Bank has recorded 4.02 trillion won in deposits, and 3.39 trillion won in loans. In terms of the number of cases, the percentage of customers for each credit product was about 46.1% for emergency fund loans and customers with medium or low credit, and 53.9% for customers with high credit. In terms of the amount of money, it was about 86.4% for overdrafts, 8.9% for credit loans, and 4.7% for emergency fund loans. A total of 34,000 overseas remittances have occurred in the past three months, with 44% for the dollar, 20% for the euro, 10% for the Canadian dollar and 7% for the Australian dollar. The products to be introduced in the future are deposit loan for house rents, linking automatic withdrawal integrated management service, and account-based payment service in cooperation with Lotte Group.

 
▲ Lee Soo-young, Strategy Part Manager of Kakao Bank
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Kakao Bank's 100-day performance and future plans were introduced by Lee Soo-young, a strategy part manager of Kakao Bank. With a mobile app, mobile banking centers, ATMs, and a homepage as its main channels, Kakao Bank, which celebrates the 100th day of its launch, has deposit products such as checking accounts (Safe Box), fixed deposit, and free savings, and loan products such as emergency fund loans, minus account loans, and credit loans. It also presents check cards in the payment sector, and overseas remittance services in the foreign exchange sector. Features of Kakao Bank include competitive interest rates and transfers, free ATM fees, low commission of overseas remittance, simplified processes and a 24-hour mobile experience, Kakao Friends, and customer experience based on KaKaoTalk.

Kakao Bank commented that the launch of the company served as a momentum that could turn the image of finance into sharable finance, finance in life, and finance with fun and enjoyment. Its representative examples are the appearance of communities to achieve their goals through Kakao Bank, the sharing of completed transfer proof shots, the sharing of know-how related to products and the spread of experiences to recommend to other customers. The reasons for using Kakao Bank are simple transfer without a certificate, easy and convenient to use, low commission, easy and simple product registration procedure, available anytime and anywhere, good interest rates on deposits and loans, and so on.

Meanwhile, Kakao Bank introduced the x86-based Linux operating system, Java-based environment, and open source-based DBMS, which are both flexible and scalable at low cost. Kakao Bank was built with only 33% of the cost for the existing Unix-based systems through x86-based Linux. DBMS costed 60% of the cost for the existing Oracle through MySQL, and WEB/WAS costed about 43% with the base of Apache/Tomcat.

 
▲ It is positive that Kakao Bank's intention to use in the future will be high.

The number of customers opening accounts at Kakao Bank was introduced as 4.35 million on a three-month basis (until October 31). Kakao Bank opened over 240,000 accounts at the opening day. It exceeded the number of non-face-to-face accounts opened by commercial banks, which is 155,000, last year. In the first month, the average of 100,000 accounts were newly opened a day, 30,000 in the second month, and 28,000 in the third month. When looking at the whole period, an average of 43,500 people opened an account on a daily basis. As a result of Kakao Bank app satisfaction surveys, customer satisfaction with Kakao Bank was introduced at 76.5% (98% when including ‘moderate’).

Over 80% of the respondents answered that they will use Kakao Bank in the future, and the response to “I will recommend to acquaintances” was 77%, which could be interpreted that Kakao Bank also has a great deal of room for practical use experience to be spread among customers, like KakaoTalk. On the other hand, the percentage of intentions to use by 50s, which was regarded as minority group in mobile finance, was 92.4%, the highest percentage compared to other ages. They also showed 81.9% for the willingness to recommend to acquaintances, and late 40s also evaluated Kakao Bank service positively.

According to the age-based status of the accounts opened, 20s was 31%, 30s was 34%, 40s was 21%, so 20s to 40s showed the largest percentage. Also, according to the job-based status of the accounts opened, the percentage of office workers was the largest. The distribution of customers by time zone was 43% from 4 p.m. to 12 p.m. and 13% from 12 p.m. to 9 a.m., which are not during the normal bank hours. The distribution of transfer customers was 43% during 4 p.m. to 12 p.m. and 14% during 12 p.m. to 9 a.m., showing competitiveness of no time restrictions. On the other hand, the Kakao Friends check card was applied by 3.18 million people, which is 73% of the total account openers. The most popular character was ‘Ryan’, which accounted for 53% of the applications, and ‘Apeach’, ‘Muzi’, ‘Con’, and ‘Black’ respectively followed.

The Kakao Friends check card was initially noted for its high value cards. Now, it has become a practical check card based on various benefits such as transportation card function and ATM fee exemption. In addition, from November 7th, the smart withdrawal service, which was only available at existing CU convenience store ATMs, will be expanded to 5,500 Lotte ATMs installed in Lotte distribution centers and service centers nationwide, including Seven-Eleven, Lotte Mart, Lotte Cinema and Lotte Duty Free.

 
▲ In terms of importance by credit products, the number of cases for customers with medium or low credit is high, but the amount is small.

As of the end of October, Kakao Bank's deposits (eg. savings) amounted to 4.02 trillion won and loans of 3.39 trillion won (based on the executed loan balance). On the 25th, when the payday of general companies are concentrated, the inflow amount of deposit is higher than the other days. In terms of the percentage of customers by credit products, customers with medium or low credit (grades 4 to 8 based on CB company’s credit rating) and emergency fund loan (grades 1 to 8) account for 46.1%, and customers with high credit (grades 1 to 3) account for 53.9%. As for the amount of money, emergency fund load is 4.7%, credit loan is 8.9%, and minus account was 86.4%. In the case of customers with medium or low credit, since their loan limit and ability are low compared to customers with high credit, the percentage of the amount of money is low, while the number of cases is high.

A total of 34,000 overseas remittances have occurred in the past three months. The majority of the cases were parents, who have children studying abroad, sending their tuition and living expenses. Among overseas remittance money, the dollar accounts for 44%, the euro for 20%, the Canadian dollar for 10%, and the Australian dollar for 7%. The transfer fee from overseas banks to Kakao Bank is free of charge for less than $100 USD. Even if the amount is more than $100, the commission fee of 5,000 won is cheaper than commercial banks. For this reason, it is researched that Kakao Bank has a lot of use to earn profits from advertising fees through publishing blogs or image contents.

On the other hand, in terms of stable service and customer experience improvement, it held a board meeting on August 11, just two weeks after opening, and decided to issue a 500 billion won of capital increase by allocation to stockholder. On September 5, the company announced that it had completed the recapitalization and the current paid-in capital is 80 billion won. Initially, Kakao Bank planned to raise capital by 400 billion won in 2018. However, after the launch of the customer service, Kakao Bank has preemptively progressed it after the explosion inflow of the customer, which has strengthened its financial solvency and provided a foundation for introducing innovative services.

Also, on October 30, the second customer center 'Gangseo Office' was opened and about 150 employees were recruited. With the opening of Gangseo Office, Kakao Bank currently has a total of 400 customer counseling staffs. The response rate has improved dramatically, and the total customer consultation rate after opening the office in Gangseo is 80 to 90%. The customer center will share the works according to the customer consultation channel and establish the expertise for each center. The Seoul office will provide consumer protection and foreign exchange business consultation based on non-telephone channels such as KakaoTalk, one on one consultation, and Gangseo Office will concentrate on general products and customer support consultation based on telephone consultation.

 
▲ Kakao Bank will continue to expand its services in 2018.

Kakao Bank said that it has developed its future direction and product launch plan by analyzing and reflecting customers' demand for financial products and services aimed at 'my own bank that is more frequently used in everyday life' in the future. As a result, the first product introduced is the 'deposit loan for house rents', which is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2018. It is based on the guarantee of Korea Housing Finance Corporation so that customers can loan by submitting the documents through the smart phone without visiting the bank. Like the existing Kakao Bank loan products, customers can submit their application through the Kakao Bank app after credit information scraping and photo shooting, and Kakao Bank plans to make it available even if customer’s moving date is on holiday.

It also introduced that automatic payment integrated management service (Payinfo) will be launched in 2018. When Payinfo service and Firm banking service are started, people can pay their cellular phone charges, insurance, etc. in real time through their Kakao Bank accounts. They can also pay local taxes through virtual account service. In addition, Kakao Bank signed an MOU with Lotte Group in June to integrate distribution and finance sectors, and plans to launch a TF for account-based payment service from November. Based on Kakao Bank's account, it aims to establish a process that connects consumers and sellers directly to eliminate intermediate operators.

From this month, Kakao Bank will also collaborate with Lotte members on big data, and prepare innovative products and services by combining Lotte's distribution data with Kakao Bank's financial products and services. Along with data collaboration with Lotte Members, Kakao Bank is currently accumulating non-identifiable data of shareholder company such as Kakao Taxi and Kakao Gift. In the future, Kakao Bank plans to advance its credit scoring system by analyzing and applying its own data accumulated through Kakao Bank operations. Meanwhile, the credit card business is getting ready, so the company plans to promote preliminary license in the first half of 2018 and aims to start business in the second half of 2019.

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