[2025 Audit] "Average Daily Use of Prepaid Electronic Payment Instruments Reaches 2.4 Trillion Won... Heightened Money Laundering Concerns"

Park Chandae Warns of Potential Abuse in Cases Like the Cambodia Incident

The number of transactions and licensed operators for prepaid electronic payment instruments, including mobile gift certificates, has continued to rise. In light of recent evidence that mobile gift certificates were used to launder criminal proceeds in a 12 billion won "Cambodia romance scam" case, there are growing calls for financial supervisory authorities to strengthen monitoring efforts.

According to statistics on prepaid electronic payment instruments for the past five years, submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to the office of Park Chandae, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the use of prepaid electronic payment instrument services is rapidly increasing.

The average daily number of transactions rose from 47.64 million in 2021 to 54.15 million in 2022, 60.32 million in 2023, 67.63 million last year, and 34.38 million in the first half of this year. The average daily transaction amount also increased from 1.331 trillion won in 2021 to 1.6573 trillion won in 2022, 2.0326 trillion won in 2023, 2.35 trillion won last year, and 1.2909 trillion won in the first half of this year.

The number of licensed operators has also grown rapidly. The number of companies holding prepaid electronic payment instrument licenses increased from 72 in 2021 to 112 as of the end of September this year, and as of the same date, 20 large companies had applied for licenses. The number of suspicious transaction monitoring targets and inspections by supervisory authorities also increased from 3 in 2021 to 6 last year, and 13 as of September this year, indicating that actual risks are expanding.

Park Chandae, member of the Democratic Party of Korea. Office of Park Chandae

The Financial Supervisory Service has pointed out that, due to the structural characteristic of prepaid funds moving through each company's internal network, it is difficult to track the flow of funds from outside. The high proportion of non-face-to-face transactions can weaken compliance with customer verification obligations, and there are concerns that if the "issuance→refund" process is exploited, overseas criminal funds could be quickly converted into cash.

Park Chandae stated, "Prepaid electronic payment instruments and mobile gift certificates are innovations that enhance consumer convenience, but they are also a double-edged sword, as they can be exploited for money laundering and criminal activities." He added, "We need to expand supervisory personnel and systems in line with the market size, and establish a real-time monitoring system capable of detecting high-risk suspicious transactions at an early stage."

He continued, "Inspections must be strengthened to prevent supervisory gaps amid rapidly increasing demand, and strict sanctions, such as license revocation, should follow in the event of violations." He emphasized, "Thorough supervision is necessary to ensure that criminal funds from countries such as Cambodia are not laundered through these instruments."

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