Refund amounts and dormant asset balances to be disclosed every first quarter

New management targets to be added to industry conduct guidelines

An ATM in Seoul. [Yonhap]
An ATM in Seoul. [Yonhap]

With unclaimed financial assets such as deposits and insurance payouts sitting at around 1.5 trillion won ($1.11 billion), financial regulators plan to begin publicly disclosing how much each financial institution has returned to customers in a bid to spur more proactive refund efforts.

The Financial Services Commission said Monday it would pursue a plan to release dormant asset refund data across all financial sectors — including banks, securities firms, insurers, savings banks and mutual finance institutions — every first quarter.

The disclosures will cover the amount of dormant assets refunded, the remaining balance of dormant assets, and the balance of long-inactive assets. The figures will be published on the websites of the respective industry associations.

"By making it possible for outside parties to check and compare financial institutions' dormant asset refund performance, we intend to encourage firms to make voluntary efforts to return those assets," the Financial Services Commission said.

Regulators also plan to add new provisions on dormant asset management targets, refund promotion activities and internal reporting to the financial consumer protection conduct guidelines for each sector.

Financial institutions will be encouraged to set their own targets for controllable indicators — such as refund rates, refund amounts, rates of change, the number of outreach campaigns, and whether notification and refund procedures have been improved in a given year — with the aim of expanding the overall scale of refunds.

The move comes as dormant asset balances have stubbornly refused to shrink despite active promotion efforts by regulators and the industry. According to the Financial Services Commission, the dormant asset balance stood at 1.5 trillion won at end-2022, rose to 1.6 trillion won at end-2023, and fell to 1.4 trillion won at end-2024.

As of the end of last year, the balance stood at 1.5019 trillion won. Long-inactive financial assets — deposits, savings accounts and insurance payouts left untouched for three or more years past maturity — totaled 14.2015 trillion won.

Customers can currently reclaim dormant financial assets through the Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute's "Account Info" service or the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency's dormant deposit retrieval service.


hyuk@heraldcorp.com