The launch of the third stage of a new program that allows customers to transfer bank accounts with the click of a mouse saw a flood of account inquiries. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb.28 (Korea Bizwire) – The launch of the third stage of a new program that allows customers to transfer bank accounts with the click of a mouse saw a flood of account inquiries.
According to the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTCI), more than 390,000 account transfer inquiries were recorded. The numbers were tallied based on figures from the KFTCI’s ’Payinfo’ site (www.payinfo.or.kr), as well as data from 16 banks including their internet sites, mobile apps and retail operations.
At 95 percent, the vast majority of the total views (370,801) occurred at branches, through mobile apps and on the internet sites of the participating banks.
Only 19,793 views were registered on the Payinfo site, which was only 6,000 more views than the daily average.
The number of views more than doubled compared to the first day of the second stage of the account transfer system. Officials at the KFTCI commented that although they cannot confirm the reason for the soaring number of account transfers yet, the number of views increased greatly compared to the second stage as more banks participated in this round of the program.
Banks created ‘account transfer service’ menus on their mobile and internet banking sites to attract clients. They also promoted the system aggressively through offline channels.
Bank officials commented that some clients actually transferred their accounts after tellers promoted the newly opened system. However, they also said that there were few clients who actually visited banks for the sole purpose of transferring their account.
Furthermore, since it is nearly the end of the month, most of the clients who visited bank branches had other urgent transactions to take care of. Bankers commented that some clients knew that the account transfer system opened and asked questions about it, but clients who actually transferred their accounts were few and far between.
Industry officials expect that since account transfer procedures have been greatly simplified, more customers will transfer their accounts compared to when the second stage of the system was launched.
Statistics on transfers and account closures will be revealed on February 29.
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
