[1mm Financial Talk] Frustration Over K Bank App Glitch... Inadequate Response Under Scrutiny

K-Bank Access Error Resolved After About 7 Hours
"Server Issue... Will Devise the Best Solution"

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] "Is it acceptable that the internet-only bank's app has been inaccessible for several hours?" On the evening of the 17th, as K-Bank's connection error persisted for a long time, users expressed their frustration.

The K-Bank mobile banking app experienced connection errors starting around 8:30 PM the previous day and was only restored to normal by 4 AM on the 18th. K-Bank dispatched staff to the Mokdong data center and headquarters to take measures, but it took more than seven and a half hours to fully recover. In particular, users faced significant inconvenience as they were unable to use frequently used services such as transfers and payments at the internet-only bank. The service of Upbit, a virtual asset exchange partnered with K-Bank for real-name verification deposit and withdrawal, was also restricted.

A K-Bank official explained, "There was a problem with the storage operation of some servers," adding, "Although data was being backed up in real time, it took a long time to normalize the problematic disk and re-verify the data."

Inadequate initial response from the bank also fueled users' anger. Despite the prolonged error, there were criticisms about the lack of detailed notifications such as text messages. K-Bank stated that it posted a popup notice on the app immediately after the error occurred, but some users only became aware of the connection error through Upbit's announcements, which is partnered with K-Bank. Upbit announced around 8:30 PM that day, "The KRW deposit and withdrawal and bank account authentication services using K-Bank are temporarily unavailable."

Bank app errors have been recurring whenever they seem to be forgotten. According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, there were a total of 159 IT failures in the financial sector from January to August this year. IT failures in the financial sector have increased annually, with 196 cases in 2019, 198 in 2020, and 228 last year. Over the past four years, banks accounted for the most IT failures with 275 cases, followed by securities firms (246 cases), insurance companies (137 cases), savings banks (66 cases), and card companies (57 cases).

As offline branches shrink, the role of bank apps is becoming increasingly important, but users become anxious every time the app goes down. Especially for internet-only banks without physical branches, app errors are critical. Following the K-Bank outage incident, users expressing anxiety and threatening to withdraw their funds continue to emerge, so the aftereffects are expected to last for some time. K-Bank stated, "We will analyze the cause and strengthen measures to prevent recurrence," adding, "We are receiving customer complaints and will prepare the best solutions through analysis."