Major Banks Lower 'Financial Threshold' for Foreign Students. Significant Expansion of Non-Face-to-Face Account Opening Services

Major domestic banks are competitively expanding non-face-to-face account opening services for foreign students, actively working to address the 'financial blind spots'. It is expected that the convenience of foreign students, who have faced difficulties in accessing financial services due to complex documentation and language barriers, will significantly increase.

According to the financial sector, banks have recently enhanced mobile app services specifically for foreign students or introduced specialised processes for foreigners within existing banking apps. In the past, foreign students had to visit branches in person with various documents such as proof of enrolment to open a bank account, but now, it is possible to easily open an account with just non-face-to-face identity verification procedures such as photographing a passport or foreign registration card.

In particular, banks have significantly strengthened multilingual support services to improve service accessibility. They support various languages including English, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai, helping students who are not proficient in Korean to intuitively handle financial tasks. This is seen as an attempt to enhance understanding of financial terminology by providing a user interface (UI) tailored to the needs of foreigners, going beyond simple translation.

These changes are a result of banks' strategic decisions to secure the rapidly increasing number of foreigners residing in the country as potential future customers. Additionally, it can be interpreted as part of ESG management, fulfilling social responsibilities by including financially excluded groups. Banks are also linking various additional services that can provide practical benefits to students, such as overseas remittances, preferential currency exchange, and issuing debit cards, in addition to account opening.

A representative from a major bank stated, "Foreign students can be potential customers who will play a significant role in the domestic economy in the future," and added, "We will continue to improve non-face-to-face processes and expand our product lineup tailored for foreign customers to enhance our global financial competitiveness."