Forecast 'Recovering Money Sent by Mistake', Approximately 12.3 Billion Returned Over About 3 Years

Forecast, Mobile App Development for Second Half Year Goals Begins

The Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) has returned approximately 12.3 billion KRW of mistakenly transferred funds over about three years through its mistaken remittance return support system.

KDIC announced on the 22nd that since the implementation of the mistaken remittance return support system in July 2021 until the end of last month, it reviewed 34,313 applications (64.4 billion KRW) for return support over approximately 2 years and 9 months, confirmed 14,717 cases (21.5 billion KRW) as eligible for support, and proceeded with related support procedures, resulting in the return of 9,818 cases amounting to 12.3 billion KRW of mistakenly sent money.

In the first quarter, KDIC also quickly recovered 105 million KRW from 888 cases of mistaken transfers, including 14 individuals who mistakenly sent large amounts exceeding 10 million KRW (27 million KRW in total).

Additionally, since early this year, KDIC has improved the system to allow consumers who mistakenly transferred money due to errors such as automatic transfer setup mistakes to apply for return support without limits on the number of times. As a result, 23 people who made transfer mistakes more than twice were able to recover an additional 22.11 million KRW.

Moreover, last month, KDIC piloted a visiting recovery service in Gwangju and Busan for mistaken remitters living in rural areas who had difficulty applying for return support due to issues such as poor PC usage, old age, or livelihood concerns. KDIC explained that the majority of visitors were elderly (average age 60), and there were also cases of foreigners visiting.

KDIC plans to pilot the visiting recovery service until June and will consider making it permanent based on operational performance. Furthermore, to facilitate easier application for recovery services in case of mistaken remittances, KDIC is developing a mobile application targeted for release in the second half of this year.

A KDIC representative stated, "In the future, mistaken remitters using the mobile app will be able to apply for return support more easily than before due to diversified authentication methods, and they will be able to check the progress of the return process in real time." They added, "KDIC will continue to actively improve the system so that the recovery service can be used more quickly and conveniently."