[Weekly Savings Banks] Industry Leading Healthy Financial Education

Yurina, Deputy Manager at Welcome Savings Bank, is conducting financial education at Suwon Seonil Elementary School. Photo by Welcome Savings Bank

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] The savings bank industry is taking the lead in financial education for teenagers.

◆ Welcome Savings Bank Receives Financial Supervisory Service Commissioner Award for 1 Company 1 School Program

Welcome Savings Bank was selected as an outstanding case for the ‘1 Company 1 School Financial Education’ program and received the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Commissioner Award.

Welcome Savings Bank announced that Yuri Na, Deputy Manager of the Financial Consumer Protection Team, received the FSS Commissioner Award at an awards ceremony jointly held by the FSS and six financial associations.

Kim Seong-sam, a teacher at Suwon Seonil Elementary School, who partnered with Welcome Savings Bank to conduct the 1 Company 1 School financial education, was also selected as an outstanding teacher and received the Chairman’s Award from the Korea Federation of Savings Banks.

Welcome Savings Bank first formed a sisterhood partnership with Yerim Design High School in 2016, followed by Suwon Seonil Elementary School in 2018, and this year with Incheon Jungsan Elementary School for the 1 Company 1 School financial education program. Along with the Korea Federation of Savings Banks, Welcome Savings Bank has formed the most sisterhood partnerships and is leading the way in delivering proper financial education.

Deputy Manager Yu, selected as an outstanding case this time, noticed the lack of teaching materials tailored for elementary students and showed enthusiasm by creating educational materials suited to their level. She also requested the Korea Federation of Savings Banks to produce elementary school financial education materials, contributing to their creation.

Yu received praise for adding financial information rules to existing board game rules, combining fun and education simultaneously. It is also known that the satisfaction evaluations completed by students who participated in the classes received high scores.

Yu said, “I felt proud to be able to deliver various financial information and knowledge to young students through financial education,” adding, “I will continue to provide correct and useful knowledge to those in need of financial education and contribute to creating a healthy financial environment.”

◆ Moa Savings Bank Also Wins Excellence Award

Moa Savings Bank, located in Incheon, announced that it won the Excellent Employee Award (Deputy General Manager Park Ju-young of the Financial Consumer Protection Team) for two consecutive years in the 1 Company 1 School financial education excellence awards, following 2019.

In this award, the FSS highly evaluated Moa Savings Bank for continuously providing 1 Company 1 School financial education for local teenagers and newly forming a sisterhood partnership with Incheon Songcheon High School to conduct financial education.

Kim Seong-do, CEO of Moa Savings Bank, said, “Financial education for local teenagers is one of the ‘community-based social contribution activities’ that savings banks can do best,” adding, “We will actively support teenagers, the future financial consumers, to acquire sound financial knowledge, and this year, we will actively conduct accident prevention education such as voice phishing damage prevention targeting financially vulnerable groups in the local community.”

◆ Shinhan Savings Bank Launches Chatbot Service

Shinhan Savings Bank announced on the 26th that it has launched the ‘Shinhan Savings Bank Loan Chatbot’ based on KakaoTalk.

Shinhan Savings Bank customers can now use major loan-related services such as loan information inquiry, issuance of various certificates, and principal and interest repayment within KakaoTalk. Built on Kakao i Open Builder, this service can be accessed through the KakaoTalk loan chatbot service channel without the hassle of separately accessing an app or website.

A Shinhan Savings Bank official said, “Customers using the loan chatbot can receive loan services anytime without time restrictions such as nighttime or holidays by simply entering basic personal information,” adding, “This will greatly improve customer convenience by resolving the inconvenience of not being able to conduct financial transactions during regular business hours.”

Meanwhile, Shinhan Savings Bank achieved a net profit of 23.1 billion KRW last year through the activation of mid-interest loans and improvements in non-face-to-face processes, marking a 19.3% growth compared to the previous year.

◆ OK Savings Bank Leads Retirement Pension Market

OK Savings Bank announced on the 28th that it has reached 1 trillion KRW in retirement pension balances. This is another achievement just two months after surpassing 1 trillion KRW in new sales as of December last year.

Since launching its retirement pension product in November 2018, OK Savings Bank has been providing fixed deposit products with fixed interest rates for defined benefit (DB), defined contribution (DC), and individual retirement pension (IRP) plans to 28 financial companies including banks, securities firms, and insurance companies. The maximum subscription amount is 50 million KRW for individuals and 3 billion KRW for corporations, with interest rates of 1.9% per annum (before tax) for DC and IRP, and 2.2% per annum (before tax) for DB. A notable feature is that the agreed interest rate is guaranteed even in cases of early termination due to unavoidable reasons such as retirement.

In particular, OK Savings Bank’s DB-type retirement pension balance stands out as the largest among savings banks at 300 billion KRW. Since DB plans are decided by companies rather than employees, companies tend to choose financial institutions more conservatively, and OK Savings Bank is regarded as more trusted by companies compared to other savings banks.

Jung Gil-ho, CEO of OK Savings Bank, said, “We formed a business preparation team six months before the launch and meticulously prepared from the product design stage with retirement pension operators and corporate retirement pension managers. Thanks to these efforts, satisfaction with the product is high regardless of industry, from private companies to public enterprises,” adding, “We believe that specialized services such as special early termination and broad social participation activities like volunteer work and sports events have built social trust in OK Savings Bank, earning favorable reviews.”

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