KakaoBank, a South Korea-based internet-only bank, has added banking services for foreign residents to its existing app. Foreign residents can now open checking accounts remotely and send remittances to 200 countries in more than 50 currencies. Until now, foreign customers could only use mobile identification and shared accounts on the bank’s platform.
Same app, same services for foreign and domestic customers
The service gives foreign residents access to banking functions already available to South Korean citizens, including debit card issuance. Like domestic users, foreign customers can open an account without visiting a branch, receive fee waivers on transfers and ATM withdrawals, and earn cashback on debit card spending. The bank has also added features for foreign customers, such as multilingual customer support and access to bank documents, including balance certificates and transaction histories.
KakaoBank has chosen to integrate these services into its main app rather than build a separate product. According to Bae Jung-ho, Head of the Foreign Customer Camp at KakaoBank, banks have typically developed dedicated apps for foreign customers, and over time these have fallen behind the services offered in their apps for South Korean customers. KakaoBank’s approach is intended to give both customer groups the same services and benefits through a single platform. The bank also cited multilingual services, dedicated authentication, and security features as core elements of the offering. KakaoBank plans to add savings accounts, Open Banking, and loan comparison services for foreign customers in 2027. These additions would bring the offering closer to the full range of retail banking products available to domestic users.
Foreign residents become a target market for South Korean banks
The launch comes as South Korea's foreign resident population continues to grow. According to the Ministry of Justice, the country had 2.78 million foreign residents at the end of 2025, up 5% year on year. Of these, 2.15 million had stayed in the country for more than 90 days.
As this population has grown, South Korean banks have increasingly focused on foreign residents as a new revenue source. In 2025, Shinhan Bank revamped SOL Global, its mobile banking app for foreign customers, adding support for 16 languages and expanding remote services such as account opening and loan applications. In 2026, Hana Bank turned its Hana EZ app for foreign customers into an integrated financial and lifestyle platform, adding overseas remittances, document issuance, and utility bill payments. JB Financial Group also launched Bravo Korea, a financial services platform for foreign residents, in 2025. Unlike these competitors, KakaoBank has not built a separate foreign-customer app. Its main app now serves both groups, with additional services scheduled for 2027.
