Oh Bo-hyun, foreign exchange (FX) service owner at KakaoBank, speaks during a press conference in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of KakaoBank
KakaoBank has rolled out a new foreign exchange (FX) service called Dollar Box, designed to introduce innovations in the FX market for its 24 million digital banking users.
During the internet-only bank's press conference in southern Seoul, Tuesday, the bank announced the new FX service is designed to allow customers to more conveniently use the U.S. dollar, the most common foreign currency in Korea, in their everyday lives from currency exchange and remittance to making payments.
Any Korean customer aged 19 or older can open a Dollar Box account using their KakaoBank deposit account. The account allows a maximum deposit limit of $10,000, with a daily deposit cap of $5,000 and a daily withdrawal limit of $10,000. The service operates 24/7, and there are no additional fees for depositing or withdrawing U.S. dollars.
Dollar Box users can withdraw physical cash at no cost from five Shinhan Bank foreign currency ATMs nationwide by using QR codes generated in the KakaoBank app. Each ATM withdrawal requires a minimum of $100 per transaction, with a daily maximum withdrawal limit of $600.
Special features of the digital bank's FX service include its Dollar Gift service, where customers can send U.S. dollars as a mobile gift to their friends using KakaoTalk messenger.
Oh Bo-hyun, foreign exchange (FX) service owner at KakaoBank, left, and Travel Wallet CEO Kim Hyung-woo speak during a press conference in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of KakaoBank
KakaoBank has also bolstered strategic business collaborations in expanding the FX service by partnering with Travel Wallet, the country's leading foreign exchange and payment service app.
With the partnership, U.S. dollars deposited in Dollar Box can be directly utilized for various other currency exchanges and overseas payment services. Users only need to click the Travel Wallet Recharge page within Dollar Box to freely use the foreign currency exchanges and make payment in 70 countries worldwide, across Europe, Asia and North America.
"With the launch of Dollar Box, KakaoBank aims to create a whole new foreign currency ecosystem by generating a synergy with partner companies having top-tier technologies," Oh Bo-hyun, foreign exchange (FX) service owner at KakaoBank, said during the press conference.
Travel Wallet CEO Kim Hyung-woo, who also attended Tuesday's press conference, emphasized a collaboration between the internet-only bank and a fintech startup would mutually benefit their users.
"A majority of Travel Wallet customers were already using KakaoBank as their main bank accounts, indicating that a huge number of customers are overlapping in both services," Kim said. "With this collaboration, I hope customers can use U.S. dollars more conveniently for their own purposes," he said.
KakaoBank plans to build ties with other strategic partners as well, in order to integrate new services, such as shopping, hoping to further expand the foreign currency ecosystem based on Dollar Box.