Wrongly Transferred 220 Million KRW Recovered Through KODIT's 'Return Support System'

Implementation of Erroneous Remittance Return Support System on July 6
1,912 Applications Received...177 Returns Processed
Plan to Develop 'Mobile Application' Within This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seungseop] It has been confirmed that approximately 220 million KRW has been returned to remitters through the mistaken remittance return support system.

According to the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) on the 15th, since the implementation of the mistaken remittance return support system on July 6, a total of 1,912 applications have been received as of the 13th of this month. The total amount was about 3 billion KRW, of which 177 cases amounting to 220 million KRW were returned to the original remitters. Most applications were made online, while some were submitted through in-person visits.

A total of 510 applications passed KDIC’s review and were confirmed as eligible for support. Among these, 177 cases have completed voluntary returns, and 333 cases are currently undergoing voluntary return or payment order procedures. Additionally, 545 cases are under review to determine eligibility, and 857 cases were excluded from support due to suspicions of voice phishing or procedural deficiencies.

Based on the 177 voluntarily returned cases, the average payment rate reached 96.2%. The payment rate falling short of 100% is due to actual expenses such as postage fees and text message notification costs incurred during the return process.

The average time required for returns was calculated to be 28 days. Before the system, returns were often refused or contact information was unavailable, requiring lawsuits that lasted over six months to recover the funds. However, by using KDIC’s return support system, it is explained that the money can be easily recovered within 30 days without any litigation.

Most mistaken remitters were individuals (95%). By age group, those in their 30s to 50s, who are economically active, accounted for 68.6%, the largest share. By region, the Seoul metropolitan area including Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon accounted for 57.7%.

The scale of mistaken remittance amounts applied for ranged from 100,000 KRW to less than 500,000 KRW in 667 cases, accounting for 34.9% of the total. Cases under 3 million KRW accounted for 80% overall.

Regarding remittance financial institutions, banks accounted for 83.6%, simple remittance service providers 6.3%, and local Nonghyup and other cooperative associations 3.9%. For receiving financial institutions, banks accounted for 74.6%, securities companies 18.9%, and Saemaeul Geumgo 2.6%.

KDIC plans to strengthen the financial institutions’ own return procedures in the future. If mistaken remitters apply for KDIC’s support system despite being able to recover funds through the financial institutions’ own return procedures, they may incur unnecessary costs. The plan is to standardize the mistaken remittance return procedures, which currently vary by financial institution, and to prepare guidelines for the support system to share with the industry.

Promotion to prevent misuse of the system will also be expanded. This is because cases of fraud such as voice phishing and claims of mistaken remittance due to simple change of mind in contracts or transactions are occurring frequently. If someone falsely uses the system despite not being eligible, they will be informed that applications will be prohibited for the next five years, and public awareness campaigns will be conducted accordingly.

Additionally, development of a mobile application system will begin. A KDIC official stated, “There have been many requests from users to allow applications via mobile,” and added, “We plan to start this by the end of this year.”

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