FSC to foster senior-friendly ‘untact’ financial services

South Korea’s financial authorities said Tuesday they plan to set detailed guidelines on non-face-to-face services -- recently labeled “untact.”

As part of its efforts to help seniors adapt to digital trends and technologies in the financial sector, the Financial Services Commision announced last week that it will commission research to identify demand for digital banking and financial services among seniors through surveys and data collection. In addition, the financial authority will try to analyze and benchmark contactless digital financial services for the elderly in developed countries.

The term untact has widely been used here since the outbreak of the new coronavirus earlier this year, reflecting the rising trend of non-face-to-face services. Amid growing concerns over the fast spread of the novel coronavirus, consumers have been increasingly turning to contactless financial and banking services via smartphones, such as money transfers and online banking.

The new guidelines from the FSC will advise local banks to address seniors’ difficulties when using the banks’ mobile applications and websites.

Meanwhile, the country officially became an aged society last year, as the portion of the population aged over 65 accounted for 14.9 percent of the total. Despite the growing aging population, the percentage of mobile banking users in their 60s and 70s this year reached 18.7 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively, whereas the figure for 30-somethings surpassed 80 percent, according to the FSC.

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)