Shinhan Bank-GS Retail, Convenience Store Innovation Outlet Opens

Video Face-to-Face Consultation Support Until 8 PM
'Digital Desk' Installed Outside Branches

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Shinhan Bank announced on the 27th that it will open the first innovative convenience store branch where financial transactions are possible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, anywhere, in Gohan-eup, Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do, in collaboration with GS Retail.

Shinhan Bank and GS Retail combined banking transaction data from the region with convenience store sales data to provide financial services tailored to customer needs. They established an innovative branch inside a GS25 convenience store in a shop-in-shop format, based on a digital desk enabling staff and video consultations and a 2021-model smart kiosk that allows 24-hour transactions, incorporating advanced technologies such as AI bankers and biometric authentication.

The innovative branch consists of a banking zone and a customer experience space, decorated with a cafe-style interior designed to encourage customers, who mainly purchase coffee products, to stay longer. Large monitors in the customer experience space display bank-produced broadcasts and YouTube content.

The digital desk is the industry's first platform installed outside a bank branch that enables face-to-face level service. In an independent space within the convenience store, customers can conduct about 80% of bank branch services such as funds, trusts, retirement pensions, and loans through video consultations with staff from Shinhan Bank’s digital sales department.

In particular, video consultation hours have been extended by 4 hours compared to branch operating hours, running from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, greatly enhancing customer convenience by allowing them to handle face-to-face level banking services comfortably after work.

The smart kiosk is a high-function ATM capable of physical transactions such as passbooks, cards, OTPs, and giro slips. It can handle over 80 types of transactions including reissuing security media, instant issuance of check cards, bill payments, cash deposits and withdrawals, and passbook updates. Customers registered with biometric authentication can conduct banking transactions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

A Shinhan Bank official said, "We have built an unprecedentedly sophisticated unmanned branch by combining GS Retail’s convenience store channel, which is becoming a lifestyle platform for local communities with excellent accessibility, and digital finance." He added, "We will continue to expand convenience store banking nationwide to improve financial consumers’ accessibility and promote various services combining finance and distribution."