KakaoBank Overseas Remittance Annual Usage Amount Surpasses 1 Billion Dollars

Best Performance Ever Since Release in July 2017

KakaoBank announced on the 23rd that the total amount of overseas remittances made through KakaoBank in 2023 surpassed 1 billion USD (approximately 1.34 trillion KRW). This is the highest annual performance since the launch of the overseas remittance service. The cumulative amount of overseas remittances since the launch has reached 5.4 billion USD. For the first time in a year, the amount remitted from overseas accounts to KakaoBank also exceeded 100 million USD.

The number of transactions also hit an all-time high. Approximately 616,000 overseas remittance transactions were made throughout the year. The average monthly number of remittances, which was around 10,000 in 2017, has now exceeded 50,000. The number of users is steadily increasing as well. About 131,000 customers used overseas remittance at least once during the year. Among them, more than 60% are existing customers. KakaoBank analyzed that the increase in customers is due to users returning to the service after experiencing its convenience.

In fact, ‘convenience’ was cited as the main reason for using the service. According to a survey conducted with about 400 foreign currency remittance customers, the largest portion of customers (about 60%) chose KakaoBank overseas remittance because of ‘easy mobile use’.

KakaoBank operates two overseas remittance services: ‘Overseas Account Remittance,’ available in 12 currencies across 22 major countries worldwide, and ‘WU Fast Overseas Remittance,’ in collaboration with Western Union (WU), which enables remittances to over 200 countries worldwide within one minute. Since the customer service launch in July 2017, KakaoBank has reduced overseas remittance fees to one-tenth of the previous level and simplified the fee structure.

Meanwhile, KakaoBank is holding an event for customers using ‘WU Fast Overseas Remittance.’ From today until the 12th of next month, customers who remit 1 USD or more via ‘WU Fast Overseas Remittance’ will be entered into a draw to receive cashback of up to 50,000 KRW, with a total of 3,200 winners.

A KakaoBank representative stated, "Thanks to many customers who experienced our convenient and reasonably priced overseas remittance service and returned to use KakaoBank overseas remittance again, we were able to achieve the milestone of surpassing 1 billion USD in annual transaction volume."