A New Financial App for Seniors with Large Text and Easy Controls Launches

Introduction of Dedicated Manual to Prevent Incomplete Sales to Elderly
Increased Penalties for Incomplete Sales Targeting Numerous Elderly Customers

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] A 'senior citizen exclusive application (app)' aimed at improving the accessibility of digital financial services for the elderly will be launched. A dedicated product description booklet will also be introduced to prevent elderly consumers from suffering damages due to incomplete sales of financial products.

The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 30th plans to prepare a "senior-friendly financial environment creation plan" containing these details.

The financial authorities plan to make the font size of the senior-exclusive app larger than that of general apps and simplify the interface, while configuring the app mainly around services frequently used by the elderly.

The financial authorities are currently conducting research to establish guidelines for the production of senior-exclusive apps. Based on these guidelines, financial companies will develop apps and promote and provide them to senior customers.

Provided by the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service

Additionally, to reduce the inconvenience of financial use by the elderly due to the closure of offline bank branches, the financial authorities plan to strengthen prior procedures when closing offline branches. Accordingly, external experts will be involved in the evaluation process to enhance the independence and objectivity of branch closure impact assessments.

Currently, customers are notified one month before a branch closure, but in the future, notification must be given three months in advance. The financial authorities also plan to activate mobile and unmanned branches and strengthen window service partnerships with post offices (2,655 nationwide), which have many branches.

The number of domestic bank branches decreased by 12.7%, from 7,689 at the end of June 2013 to 6,711 at the end of last year. Conversely, the proportion of online transfer and withdrawal transactions increased from 36.8% in 2016 to 74.4% in March this year, and the proportion of online deposit transactions rose from 19.2% to 47.1% during the same period.

Furthermore, to prevent incomplete sales of financial products targeting the elderly, the financial authorities plan to introduce a senior-exclusive product description booklet that simplifies and visualizes the core contents of products and produce videos explaining precautions at the time of subscription, thereby strengthening the explanatory obligations of financial companies.

"Strengthening explanatory obligations through video product explanations, etc."
Promotion of the enactment of the 'Senior Financial Damage Prevention Act'

The financial authorities also plan to consider measures such as imposing enhanced sanctions with a zero-tolerance principle or restricting mitigation for incomplete sales targeting many elderly customers.

At the same time, the financial authorities will improve offline services to ensure that benefits are not concentrated only on online-exclusive products, which have low usage rates among the elderly. Regulations against age discrimination by financial companies will also be strengthened, including prohibiting age discrimination without reasonable grounds, annually inspecting product handling performance by age group, and disclosing major matters.

The financial authorities have decided to promote the enactment of the "Senior Financial Damage Prevention Act (tentative name)" to more systematically prevent "financial exploitation" such as incomplete sales and discrimination against the elderly.

Along with this, the financial authorities plan to promote ▲ development and supply of financial products contributing to stable retirement life ▲ strengthening the financial capabilities of the elderly through the development of educational content.

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