Despite "All Youth Hope Savings Enrolled"... Young People Rush to Banks

Worried About Running Out of Stock and Long Wait Times Causing Inconvenience
"If It's Like This, It's Better to Go to the Branch," Say Young People
President Moon: "If Conditions Are Met, All Applicants Will Be Enrolled Within Two Weeks"

On the day of the Youth Hope Savings launch, customers flocked to the bank application, resulting in a wait time of over one hour just to sign up. Photo by Reader Provided

Youth Hope Savings applicants are heading to bank branches amid the Youth Hope Savings frenzy. Although the president personally announced a "two-week full enrollment" measure, it seems unable to quell the heightened anxiety. As chronic application (app) errors cause inconvenience, more young people are opting to sign up directly at branches.

According to the financial sector on the 23rd, branch A of Bank A in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, struggled as a flood of Youth Hope Savings applicants arrived the previous day. Although the product is also available for non-face-to-face enrollment, the number of young people wanting to sign up on-site surged in a single day. Typically, elderly customers account for 80-90% of clients, but on that day, dozens of young people visited the counters for about an hour starting from 11:30 AM during lunch time.

In response, the branch independently guided Youth Hope Savings applicants to a separate area. This was to speed up service as it became difficult to attend to existing customers. As manpower became insufficient, the deputy branch manager personally came out and shouted every 5 minutes, "Youth Hope Savings applicants, please do not wait at the counter; kindly inform us separately," creating a remarkable scene.

At branch B of Bank B in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, 88 Youth Hope Savings account openings were processed in a single day. It is unusual for the digitally savvy youth generation to open dozens of accounts at a physical branch. On the first day of launch, the 21st, about 40 customers opened accounts. The number nearly doubled in just one day.

At Bank C, one out of five branches in Seoul experienced temporary delays in service due to Youth Hope Savings applicants. A Bank C official explained, "It is true that more customers are visiting branches to enroll in Youth Hope Savings," adding, "Since this is a temporary phenomenon, there is no separate manual for processing."

The reason why Youth Hope Savings applicants insist on visiting branches is due to concerns about product depletion. The preview service that checks eligibility before product launch exceeded 1.5 million users at major banks, and on the launch day, more applicants than expected caused confusion. Due to the 5-day system based on birth year, those with later turns developed anxiety, wondering, "Will our turn even come?"

The inconvenience was worsened by bank apps crashing from traffic surges. At that time, some banks experienced errors such as inability to access the app or failure to proceed to the next step during enrollment. Additionally, with tens of thousands of customers connecting simultaneously, wait times exceeded an hour, creating an atmosphere of "It’s better to go to the branch." Kwon Sujin (pseudonym), born in 1996, who tried non-face-to-face enrollment on the first day, lamented, "When no one succeeded in our group chat of same-age friends, we said, 'If this is the case, let's go to the bank during lunch.'"

As complaints about inconvenience arose from day one, financial authorities reportedly issued guidelines to banks to accept applications regardless of daily limits if conditions are met. President Moon Jae-in also chaired a cabinet meeting the same day, stating, "Although this project is planned to support 380,000 young people, the number of applications is expected to surge beyond expectations," and added, "To ensure no eligible youth is left out due to limited support numbers, all applicants during the next two weeks will be allowed to enroll and supported."