Four startups - Lendit, Lunit, Jobis & Villains and Travel Wallet - as well as Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance jointly formed the U-Bank Consortium earlier this week, aiming to become the country s fourth internet-only bank. So far, there are three internet-only banks in Korea: Kbank, KakaoBank and Toss Bank.
Local commercial banks are rushing to introduce foreign currency conversion fee waivers, in a move to lock in a greater number of outbound travelers amid heated market competition, market watchers said Wednesday.
It has been almost seven years since internet-only banks began operations in Korea. Since then, the three internet-only banks have expanded their presence by leveraging distinguished services and competitive interest rates, surpassing a total of 40 million customers.
Internet-only banks have logged substantial growth in the number of mortgages offered to borrowers, seeing their collective balance increase year-on-year by more than 70 percent during the past year, far surpassing the country s four major lenders increase rate that stood at 3 percent last year.
KakaoBank said Tuesday that it began selling six mutual fund products. This is the first time for an internet-only bank in Korea to launch such a service.