Deletion of Credit Information Korea Financial Address One-Stop Service under Revised Credit Information Act
Financial Consumers Expected to Face Inconvenience by Changing Individually or Using Private Companies...
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] The 'One-stop Financial Address' service, which allows users to change the registered home or office address across all financial institutions at once, will be discontinued next month. This is because the revised Credit Information Act has removed the 'address change notification agency service' from the duties of the credit information concentration agency. As a result, consumers will have to contact each financial institution individually whenever there is a change.
According to the financial industry on the 21st, the Korea Credit Information Services (KCIS) sent an official letter to financial companies on February 19th, requesting them to inform customers in advance that the 'One-stop Financial Address' service will be suspended from August 4th. Accordingly, financial companies are posting notices on their websites asking customers to update their addresses by July 31st or August 2nd, and advising that any subsequent changes must be reported directly to each individual financial institution they deal with.
The 'One-stop Financial Address' service allowed customers to update their address with just one financial institution, and the change would automatically be reflected across all other financial institutions where the address was registered. This eliminated the hassle of applying for address changes at each institution individually. It included virtually all financial institutions such as banks, securities firms, insurance companies, card companies, savings banks, post offices, and the Korea Housing Finance Corporation, making it a very useful service from the customer's perspective.
The service also helped prevent damages caused by failure to receive financial information due to address mismatches, such as loan delinquencies or insurance contract cancellations, and reduced social costs related to mail delivery and returns caused by incorrect addresses. Since its introduction by the Financial Supervisory Service in 2016, it has been provided to consumers through the Korea Credit Information Services.
The discontinuation of this convenient service for consumers is due to the enforcement of the revised 'Data 3 Acts' (Personal Information Protection Act, Information and Communications Network Act, and Credit Information Act) starting August 5th, which prevents KCIS from continuing to provide the service. The revised Credit Information Act has deleted the 'address change notification agency' duty from the comprehensive credit information concentration agency (KCIS).
The legislative change was initiated after former Justice Party lawmaker Chu Hye-sun claimed that the financial authorities had copied a similar service provided by a private company. The private company had already been offering a similar service, but the financial authorities' involvement threatened the survival of the private venture company. It was also argued that KCIS was excessively concentrating information by handling address change duties unrelated to the management and utilization of credit information. Since this private company has not partnered with all financial institutions, some customer inconvenience is expected. As a private company, there may also be costs incurred for registering new addresses, whether by customers or financial institutions.
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