Toss Bank, Kakao Bank and K bank run booths at the two-day event
Toss Bank promotes its '31-Day Savings' product
Kakao Bank highlights children's account and AI service
K bank showcases flexible fixed-deposit product
"Wow! I'm a law-squirrel!"
An elementary school student shouted after seeing the result of the "Squirrel Type Test" on a monitor at the Toss Bank booth. When handed a peel-and-stick sticker featuring the law-squirrel character, the child bowed deeply in thanks. Other visitors in their 30s who finished the test beamed as they received their stickers, saying they would put them on their phones.
Over Friday and Saturday, the booths run by the three internet banks at Herald Money Festa 2026 in Art Hall 1 of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul drew visitors of all ages.
Toss Bank drew foot traffic with its "Squirrel Type Test." Visitors answer six questions at a kiosk — such as "How would you like to raise it?" and "The squirrel says it wants to go to school — what do you say?" — and receive one of nine squirrel characters based on their answers, along with a matching peel-and-stick sticker.
The event was part of the promotion for Toss Bank's savings product "Grow It: 31-Day Savings," which the bank launched in August. The product lets customers save a small amount each day for 31 days while raising a virtual squirrel, with preferential interest rates tied to how many days they successfully save — 3 percent per year for saving on three days, rising to a maximum of 10 percent per year (before tax) for completing all 31 days. As of Sept. 5, the first maturity date after launch, cumulative account openings had surpassed 300,000. More than 70 percent of customers across all age groups from their 20s to their 50s and older saved for 21 days or more. Nine out of 10 customers aged 50 and above completed the full 31 days without early withdrawal.
Kakao Bank promoted its children's account and savings product as well as its in-app AI service to visitors, then handed out bookmarks made using Kakao's character Jordi. The souvenir contained one of eight bookmark designs featuring Jordi in various shapes and colors, distributed at random.
Kakao Bank launched the children's account and children's savings products in September last year, allowing parents to open accounts in their minor children's names. The account lets the parent manage the child's account from their phone. Of the roughly 1 million new customers who joined Kakao Bank in the first half of this year, 210,000 signed up for the children's account. The children's savings product offers a maximum annual interest rate of 7 percent — a base rate of 3 percent plus a 4 percentage-point preferential rate for automatic transfers.
The in-app AI service, also launched last year, is a generative AI-powered financial service. Customers can type or speak naturally — asking things like "What's my account number?", "What's my transfer limit?" or "Does my debit card have a transit payment feature?" — and receive answers in a conversational format.
K bank ran a "Spin the Roulette" event at its booth, where visitors who landed on a winning slot received prizes such as gel pens or portable battery packs.
K bank also used the booth to promote its flexible fixed-deposit product and AI transfer service.
The fixed-deposit product, launched last month, lets customers choose at sign-up whether to receive interest immediately or at maturity, and allows two additional deposits and two partial withdrawals after enrollment. The minimum deposit is 1 million won ($736), with no upper limit. Interest rates by term are: 3 percent per year for one month, 3.3 percent for three months, 3.4 percent for six months, and 3.71 percent for 12 months.
The AI transfer service uses AI to understand what a customer types or says, identify the intended recipient and suggest an appropriate transfer amount. Customers can complete transfers without manually entering an account number or scrolling through recent transaction history.
kimstar@heraldcorp.com
snsd@heraldcorp.com
