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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] “Honestly, I think I tried at least 100 times.” On the morning of the 5th around midnight, 32-year-old Mr. Kim opened a Hana Bank account for the first time in his life. This was to subscribe to the special savings product ‘Hana Plus Savings’ that Hana Bank was selling for three days starting from the 3rd. He said, “I tried to open an account on the Hana One Q application (app) from the 3rd, but I kept failing,” and added, “I deliberately waited until late at night and finally succeeded in subscribing.”

This is quite a frenzy. It is about the special savings product released when Hana Bank changed its brand name from KEB Hana Bank to Hana Bank. News of a savings product offering 5% annual interest in an ultra-low interest rate era sparked a huge rush. From university students to housewives and the elderly, people accessed the smartphone app to subscribe, waiting endlessly, and bank branches were packed with people lining up to open savings accounts.

An official from the bank said, “People under their 40s tried to subscribe via the app, while mostly people in their 50s and older visited branches to sign up.” The influx of savings subscribers was so large that even employees handling foreign exchange or loan services were mobilized, causing other operations to be paralyzed.

A screenshot of the application screen of a customer who successfully subscribed to Hana Bank's 'Hana Plus Savings'. Photo by Reader Provided

The Hana Bank app, which was down on the 3rd and 4th, is currently accessible, but many users are still crowded, causing delays in product subscription and some inconvenience.

As of 5 p.m. on the 4th, the total subscription amount was 231.5 billion KRW, with 837,093 accounts opened. Since only one account per person is allowed, it means about 830,000 people subscribed to this savings product.

It is expected that the number of subscribers will far exceed 1 million by the 5 p.m. deadline on the same day. This level of popularity is unprecedented among recently launched products.

Online, methods to quickly subscribe to this savings product are even being shared. One suggestion is to “use internet banking.” A bank official hinted, “Since banks manage PC internet servers and mobile app servers separately, if the app is crowded and access is difficult, it is better to use internet banking.”

This product offers a base interest rate of 3.56% per annum, with an additional 0.2 percentage points for subscribing through online channels, and 1.25 percentage points for registering automatic transfers from a Hana Bank deposit account, providing a maximum interest rate of 5.01%.

The subscription period is 12 months, with a maximum monthly deposit of 300,000 KRW. Depositing the maximum 3.6 million KRW, after deducting interest tax (15.4%), the amount received is 3,682,650 KRW. Even though the interest earned in one year is just a little over 80,000 KRW, ordinary people who cannot even consider real estate or stock investments have especially joined this frenzy. This is so-called ‘Jjantech’ (frugal + finance), a strategy to earn even a few thousand won.

One subscriber said, “Since I was going to subscribe to a savings product anyway, it’s better to join one that pays a little more interest,” adding, “Compared to other savings products with less than 3%, 5% is something to be grateful for.”

Currently, the interest rates for savings products at 18 commercial banks range from 1.70% to 3.75% per annum for 12-month flexible installment savings (including preferential rates). The average interest rate of 38 products is only 2.27%. For fixed deposits, the interest rates including preferential rates for 12 months range from 1.04% to 2.25%, with an average of 1.66% across 47 products.

It is expected that this phenomenon will repeat whenever high-interest special promotions are launched. Last July, Kakao Bank’s 5% interest non-face-to-face fixed deposit product, released to celebrate reaching 10 million customers, sold out in ‘one second,’ and whenever special promotions are held by mutual finance or savings banks, customers flood the apps and branches repeatedly.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.