[One Day Ten Thousand Steps] Profitable Walking... Interest Rates Rise, Insurance Premiums Fall

Woori·KB Bank Offer Preferential Interest Rates for More Steps
Toss 'Manbogi', Insurers' 'Health Management' Services Active

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies are introducing products and various events related to walking. This is interpreted as a strategy that attracts consumers' attention by combining a sense of accomplishment, financial income, and health management.

Banks Launch Walking-Specialized Products One After Another

Woori Bank recently launched 'Daily Walking Savings Season 2.' It is a sequel to the 'Daily Walking Savings' launched in December last year. During the approximately two-week recruitment period, it gained popularity with 220,000 applicants, far exceeding the limit of 100,000 people. Therefore, they have started recruitment again. The maximum daily deposit amount for this product is 10,000 KRW (300,000 KRW per month), the subscription period is six months, and the basic interest rate is 1% per annum. If you walk more than 10,000 steps daily and successfully complete the mission on the dedicated page of the Woori WON Banking product, you will receive a preferential interest rate of 10% points per deposit.

KB Kookmin Bank also introduced a similar product in mid-last year. It is the ‘On Kookmin Health Savings’ that applies preferential interest rates differently according to the number of steps. You can save from 10,000 KRW to 200,000 KRW per month, and the contract period is six months. You can subscribe through KB Star Banking until June 14, 2023. The basic interest rate is 2.0% per annum, but if you walk 100,000 steps monthly, you can receive a preferential interest rate of 0.5% points per month, up to a maximum of 3.0% points per annum. Additionally, if you complete the ‘Stamp Your Footprint’ mission once a month for six months on KB Star Banking, you receive 1.0% points per annum, and if you have no login history on KB Star Banking for six months as of the end of the month two months before subscription, you receive 2.0% points per annum, allowing you to get a maximum interest rate of 8.0% per annum.

In particular, preferential conditions for the elderly were also set. Customers aged 60 or older can subscribe at branches. Furthermore, even if they achieve only half the target number of steps, 50,000 steps, they receive the same preferential interest rate. In addition, through the ‘KB Daily Walking’ feature in the ‘KB Star Banking’ app, if you walk more than 35,000 steps per week, various points are awarded as benefits.

Fintech and Insurance Companies Actively Utilize Walking in Their Business

Fintech companies are also actively engaging with 'walking.' Toss, a financial platform, launched the 'Toss Pedometer' service in July 2019 as a representative example. It provides various rewards such as cash-equivalent points when users walk to designated locations based on the step count and location information measured by their phones. It also calculates calories burned while walking and informs users how they rank among people of the same gender and age group. The cumulative number of users increased from 460,000 in August 2021 to 6.5 million as of the 20th of this month, an increase of over 1400%.

This strategy is interpreted as encouraging people of various age groups to use the Toss application (app) more frequently and stay on the Toss platform, naturally exposing them to various financial services. The same strategy was applied in Vietnam. After attracting consumers with the pedometer reward function embedded in the app, they aim to secure actual consumers by promoting remittance, account opening functions, and small loan services.

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance launched the 'Anyfit Plus' app in June last year, which can be used not only as a simple pedometer but also for health management purposes. It expanded 'Anyfit,' which was only available to Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance subscribers, to general users. It sets exercise goals such as walking and analyzes various health indicators with data to help users develop healthy lifestyle habits. Kyobo Life Insurance is also focusing on health management by suggesting target step counts according to customers' gender and age through its healthcare service 'Care.'

Insurance companies are launching products and services that help with health management beyond just covering medical expenses to secure the essential customer database (DB) needed to enter the healthcare market. Furthermore, if customers' health improves, the probability of illness decreases, reducing the burden of insurance payouts and helping manage loss ratios.