KakaoBank’s cumulative openings of its “foreigner account,” launched last month, surpassed 20,000 within a month. About 38 percent of subscribers were international students, and foreigners of 124 nationalities were found to be using the service.

KakaoBank said on Nov. 12 that cumulative account openings topped 20,000 within a month of the foreigner account launch. More than 10,000 Friends check cards, a linked product, were issued, and more than 1,000 Safe Boxes were opened.

The foreigner account is a demand deposit account for foreign residents in South Korea aged 19 or older. Using public MyData, customers can open an account in about 5 minutes without visiting a branch.

Myanmar accounted for the largest share of customer nationalities at 30.3 percent, followed by China at 18.0 percent, Vietnam at 16.6 percent, Thailand at 4.8 percent, Japan at 4.6 percent and Uzbekistan at 4.3 percent.

By purpose of stay, study accounted for the highest share at 37.8 percent. It was followed by employment and work at 26.3 percent, marriage immigration at 12.7 percent, overseas Koreans at 9.2 percent and permanent residency at 7.1 percent. Women accounted for 52 percent of customers.

The number of users of an AI multilingual translation service for foreign customers came to 21,000. English was the most used language at 61.3 percent, followed by Vietnamese at 23.7 percent and Chinese at 15.0 percent.

KakaoBank plans to expand financial services for foreigners next year to include savings products, open banking and a loan comparison service, following currently provided benefits such as fee waivers for transfers and ATM use, check cards and overseas remittance services.

A KakaoBank official said, "The fact that customers can open an account in about 5 minutes without visiting a branch and conveniently use financial services needed for daily life is leading to a positive response from foreign customers."