Toss Bank After 1 Year... 4.8 Million Customers, 39% Proportion of Low-to-Medium Credit Borrowers

13,000 Daily Sign-ups... Widely Used Across All Age Groups
Top-Level Loans for Medium to Low Credit Borrowers
"Plans to Introduce Jeonse Loans and Non-Face-to-Face Mortgage Loans"

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Toss Bank, an internet-only bank, has secured nearly 5 million customers within its first year since launch. The proportion of household loans to low- and middle-credit borrowers also approached 40%, marking the highest level among internet banks.

According to Toss Bank on the 12th, as of the 5th of this month, the number of Toss Bank customers surpassed 4.8 million. Since its launch on October 5th last year, an average of 13,200 people have signed up daily.

The age distribution of users was broadly spread, with 20s (26.4%), 30s (23.9%), 40s (22.9%), 50s and above (19.7%), and teens (7.2%) in that order.

Toss Bank analyzed that the ‘Toss Bank Account,’ which fueled competition in the banking sector’s ‘parking account’ market, along with services and loan products that allow customers to check loan limits anytime, drove its growth. As of the 5th, Toss Bank’s deposit balance stood at 22.4 trillion KRW, and loan balance at 7.2 trillion KRW (6.215 trillion KRW for individuals, 985 billion KRW for individual business owners).

In particular, the ‘Receive Interest Now’ service, which allows customers to earn daily interest on demand deposit accounts, was also very popular. 2.1 million customers have used the service at least once, and among them, 82.3% (1.73 million) use it regularly. The interest paid to customers over seven months since the service launch amounted to 141.7 billion KRW.

Toss Bank also focused on expanding loans to low- and middle-credit borrowers, the original purpose of internet banks. The proportion of low- and middle-credit customers in Toss Bank’s household loans is 39%, the highest across all banks. A Toss Bank official explained, “The fully non-face-to-face, unsecured, and guarantor-free ‘Boss Loan,’ introduced for the first time by an internet-only bank, has been recognized for timely supplying funds to financially underserved areas struggling with financing.”

Additionally, 3.67 million Toss Bank check cards have been issued. Offering instant cashback benefits, the average number of cashback uses per person reached 10.4 times.

On the occasion of its first anniversary, Toss Bank also released results from a customer survey. Conducted on the 28th of last month among 8,800 customers holding Toss Bank accounts and regularly using its services, 92.4% responded that they are satisfied with Toss Bank’s challenges. The services and products supporting this satisfaction included ‘Receive Interest Now’ (60.3%, multiple responses allowed), ‘2% Toss Bank Account’ (37.8%), and ‘Instant Cashback Check Card’ (35.2%). The key impressions associated with Toss Bank were ‘simplicity’ (65%), ‘innovation’ (41.7%), ‘youthfulness’ (30.3%), and ‘a new bank’ (27.9%).

Toss Bank plans to further strengthen products and services for low- and middle-credit borrowers and financially vulnerable groups. It intends to actively select sound low- and middle-credit customers by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its proprietary credit evaluation model, the ‘Toss Scoring System (TSS).’ It is also preparing products such as jeonse deposit loans, non-face-to-face mortgage loans, and group accounts.

Hong Min-taek, CEO of Toss Bank, stated, “Toss Bank has been able to embrace many customers by innovating the existing fixed notions of first-tier banks from the user’s perspective. Building on this growth, we will lead ‘innovation based on inclusion’ and introduce banking services on a new level.”