Building Safe Transactions and Detecting Illegal Apps... Savings Banks Taking the Lead in Preventing Financial Crimes

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The savings bank sector is enhancing its capabilities to prevent financial crimes. This is because the proportion of low-credit, low-income, or elderly customers is high, making vulnerable groups more severely affected when financial crimes occur.

According to the industry on the 2nd, Welcome Savings Bank has installed a malicious application (app) detection system on its mobile platform Welcome Digital Bank (Welbang). Utilizing artificial intelligence technology, it identifies illegally installed apps on smartphones and blocks them at the source. Along with blocking, it notifies customers of the issue and encourages deletion. SBI Savings Bank has also introduced ‘FakeFinder’ to prevent financial accidents. This system is an AI-based voice phishing app detection solution that blocks apps with unclear origins or that have been tampered with.

Some have established safe transaction systems. SBI Savings Bank operates a safe transfer service to prevent voice phishing. It verifies whether the name of the remittance account holder matches the mobile phone owner and confirms the recipient’s transaction intention through a text message authentication code. Korea Investment Savings Bank has built a telecommunication financial fraud prevention IT system. Additionally, when withdrawing large cash amounts of 5 million KRW or more at branch counters, it alerts customers to the risk of voice phishing to help prevent victimization.

Crime prevention campaigns are also being conducted by each savings bank. OK Savings Bank operates a separate bulletin board on its website’s ‘Customer Voice’ section to report impersonation loan solicitation calls. It also provides information on impersonation cases, precautions, and prevention methods. Pepper Savings Bank posts notices about financial fraud-related systems, precautions, and tips on the ‘Financial Fraud Warning’ board in its customer center on the website. JT Savings Bank has even publicized cases where actual voice phishing criminal organizations impersonated children.

The financial authorities are taking steps to enhance the overall financial crime prevention capabilities of the savings bank industry. As non-face-to-face transactions increase, criminal methods are becoming more sophisticated daily. They plan to introduce voice phishing malicious app detection services and advance the Fraud Detection System (FDS). They also conducted online joint training for 79 voice phishing task managers from various companies. This helped check the risk of voice phishing occurrences at each savings bank and supported improvements where deficiencies were found.

If you experience or suspect financial fraud related to savings banks during the holiday period, you can report it through the ‘Financial Fraud Reporting Night Call Center’ of the Korea Federation of Savings Banks. A representative from a savings bank stated, “Even during the holiday period, we operate chatbots and financial fraud reporting call centers so that savings bank customers can enjoy convenience as usual.”