Kakao Bank hits $1b in outbound remittances

A Kakao Bank logo is seen on a smartphone display. (Getty Images)

South Korean internet-only lender Kakao Bank said Tuesday that the annual international transfers made on its app exceeded $1 billion last year.

The figure is the highest annual overseas remittance via Kakao Bank since the company started its service in July 2017, the firm said, adding that the cumulative amount of outbound remittances on the app had reached $5.4 billion.

Users of Kakao Bank can make international wire transfers to 22 countries in 12 currencies via the company's own foreign account transaction service or to over 200 countries in less than a minute through its partnered service with US-based payments provider Western Union.

Currently, Kakao Bank charges between 5,000 won ($3.75) and 10,000 won per overseas transfer.

The number of foreign remittances via the mobile banking service has also increased consistently, with around 616,000 transfers made last year. The monthly average transfers number was around 50,000, up from 10,000 in 2017.

Buoyed by its convenience and low transfer fees, the number of people who have sent money abroad via Kakao Bank at least once reached 131,000 last year, with 60 percent of them using the service more than once.

The Kakao subsidiary also noted the number of inbound transactions made from a foreign bank account to a Kakao Bank account topped $100 million in 2023 for the first time.

By Choi Ji-won(jwc@heraldcorp.com)