Banking through instant messenger

Kim Tae-sun

Gone are the days when online instant messages were just an avenue for secret chatter with friends. Seoul bond traders have long used Yahoo’s chat messenger to send over-the-counter bidding requests to brokers, and Microsoft’s MSN messenger has been widely used among Korean office workers to exchange office documents. Now instant messaging is reaching into further unnavigated terrain ― online banking. Shinhan Bank, Korea’s third-largest bank, last week unveiled a new Internet banking service through NateOn, Korea’s most widely used online instant messenger, with more than 19 million users. And the service, which NateOn said was the world’s first, is expected to help Shinhan gain a wider customer base among young Koreans who have rarely used banking services before, said Kim Tae-sun, junior manager of Shinhan Bank’s e-business department and the main architect of the new service, in an interview with the JoongAng Daily.
“It will really take us a step closer to youngsters who will soon become prospective customers,” said Kim. “Attracting new adult customers is not so easy in this saturated banking market, so we aim to attract youngsters wanting to make quick and easy payments for small-ticket items they buy on the Internet.”
In the “NateOn Minibank,” NateOn messenger users 15 or older can open low-capacity bank accounts by clicking a few menu items on the messenger and going through an identity verification process. The users can only deposit up to 500,000 won ($541) in their account due to the lack of face-to-face identification confirmation at an actual bank branch. But the low capacity of the account does not seem to hinder the bank from achieving its goal of securing a new source of profit.
“Most young people who buy online items in Internet games pay by mobile phone, because it is easier than sending money with Internet banking,” he said. “This is the market we are eager to penetrate with the messenger banking service.”
Korea’s mobile phone payment market amounted to 960 billion won in 2006 and is expected to exceed $1.3 trillion won this year, according to estimates by Mobillians Co., Korea’s largest mobile phone payment processor.

By Jung Ha-won Staff Writer [hawon@joongang.co.kr]