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Mr. A was stolen 30 million won from accounts at three banks last month. This is because the criminal attempted open banking (a service that allows you to search and trade multiple financial company accounts in one app) by creating a new mobile phone with the ID of Mr. A stolen by the criminal. After receiving a bank app and verifying it non-face-to-face, I used open banking to pull all the balances from two other banks. The criminal was caught by the police, but the balance of the loan he had left in another bank account disappeared.
It turns out that a new type of financial crime that abused open banking, which allows you to trade with all financial companies with one account, is on the rise. It is pointed out that even if you authenticate only at one financial company, you can bring up the balance in the account of another financial company, which can cause more damage than general financial crimes. The industry talks that a new technology that provides convenience to consumers is acting as a’double-edged sword’. The Financial Supervisory Service decided to consider some adjustments to the limit when transferring accounts between open banking and other banks.
◆Convenience is poisonous
According to the financial sector and the police on the 21st, there have been cases of recently exploiting open banking to steal customer funds from accounts at various financial companies. Open banking is a service that allows you to search and trade all financial company accounts from one financial company app. From the end of 2019, more than 96 million accounts have been registered in one year after the trial introduction and launch, and the number of inquiry and transfer use has exceeded 2.44 billion won. From last year, securities firms, mutual financial associations and fintech (financial technology) companies also jumped in.
The usage is simple. For example, if a consumer opens an app in one bank and registers for open banking, they can read accounts from other financial companies and manage them in an integrated manner. Even if you don’t know the account number of another financial company, you can register in bulk. You can view and transfer accounts of all financial companies participating in open banking on Big Tech and Fintech apps. You can trade with other banks up to 10 million won per day. Consumers can make most financial transactions with simple authentication without having to install other banking apps, and remittance fees between financial companies have declined noticeably.
Police officials say that criminals are using this convenience in reverse. This is because you can sign up for open banking without face-to-face by opening a Daepo phone if you only need to obtain an ID and credit information. It was also abused that if you first authenticate when signing up for open banking and set a simple password, no other authentication is required. A police official said, “A typical case of taking money by abusing a specific individual’s open banking after stealing an ID card or wallet was also caught.” Explained.
◆“Review of open banking limit adjustment”
There are also cases of reports of financial crimes that abused open banking to each bank branch. An employee at a bank branch said, “After some customers have been criminally abused to take out funds from their accounts, they have been asked if there is a way to cancel the transaction.” said.
Financial authorities are also paying close attention to financial crimes that abused open banking. As some of the voice phishing crimes recently filed with the Financial Supervisory Service are revealed as cases of abuse of open banking, plans to adjust the transaction limit when using open banking are also under consideration. Lee Sun-jin, head of the Financial Supervisory Service’s Illegal Finance Response Team, said, “Many financial companies are competitively introducing simple financial services such as open banking, but the risk is increasing as convenience increases.” We plan to prepare a device so that we can do it.”
However, there are voices in the financial sector that the system is in the early stages of its implementation and needs to be watched more. An official from a commercial bank said, “Since the introduction of open banking, there are many benefits from the perspective of consumers, such as simpler financial transactions and lower fees.” There is also a concern that there is,” he said.
Reporter Jeong So-Ram/Jeong Ji-eun [email protected]
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