BNK Financial Group said its affiliates Busan Bank and Kyongnam Bank will start a "retirement pension bond trading service" from April 1 through in-person and non-face-to-face channels.

It said the bond trading service via mobile banking is the first to be introduced in the banking sector and is expected to further improve customer convenience for investing.

The service is aimed at customers enrolled in defined contribution (DC) plans and individual retirement pensions (IRP). It allows them to directly buy government and local bonds on the mobile banking app. It provides a wider range of investment options beyond deposit-focused retirement pension management.

It offers products mainly in 5-year and 7-year maturity government and local bonds, considering the long-term nature of retirement pension management. It is designed to allow customers to expect stable interest income if they hold the bonds to maturity.

It also applied a trading process that prioritises customer protection. To help customers fully recognise key cautions such as price risks from market interest rate fluctuations and the possibility of principal losses from selling early, it introduced a step requiring customers to enter the main risk notices themselves, increasing prudence in investment decisions.

For government bonds, the retirement pension system allows investing the entire balance. It said it applied an investment allocation management system based on internal standards to manage in advance excessive concentration and potential loss risks.

Choi Jae-young (최재영), executive vice president and head of the WM/Pension Group at Busan and Kyongnam Bank, said government and local bonds provide customers with new investment options beyond the framework of existing retirement pension products. He said they could be an alternative that maintains a stable investment preference while securing additional return opportunities. He also said the banks will continue to expand customer-focused products and services, with improving customers' effective returns as the top priority.